Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
With the recent series of college murders behind him, Cambridge Fellow Jonty Stewart is in desperate need of a break. A holiday on the beautiful Channel Island of Jersey seems ideal, if only he can persuade Orlando Coppersmith to leave the security of the college and come with him.

Orlando is a quiet man who prefers academic life to venturing out into the world. Within the confines of their rooms at the university, it’s easy to hide the fact that he and Jonty are far more than friends. But the desire to spend more time alone with the man he loves is an impossible lure to resist.

When a brutal murder occurs at the hotel where they’re staying, the two young men are once more drawn into the investigation. The race to catch the killer gets complicated by the victim’s son, Ainslie, a man who seems to find Orlando too attractive to resist. Can Stewart and Coppersmith keep Ainslie at bay, keep their affair clandestine, and solve the crime?

BOOK REVIEW:
I was a Sherlock Holmes fan in my teens so it was with great pleasure that I discovered a book that blends an Arthur Conan Doyle-style mystery with a gay romance.

"Lessons in Desire" is book two in the Cambridge Fellows Mystery series and is set during the Edwardian period of England history (circa 1905). When the story opens, Jonathan "Jonty" Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith are a newly-coupled pair about to embark on their first holiday together. Jonty is an outgoing English professor who comes from a large, boisterous and wealthy family. Orlando, in contrast, is a gloomy, sullen Mathematics professor prone to excessive worrying. How they ever got together in the first place is a mystery to me, but it's interesting to witness how they mesh. And mesh they do as it quickly becomes apparent that theirs is a love match.

The setting is just a few years past the Victorian era when notions about sex, gender relations and fashion were restrictive, to say the least. A sexual relationship between two men was forbidden and punishable by two years of hard labor, but the threat doesn't stop Jonty or Orlando from being together, nor does their relationship appear to be offensive to their family, friends and acquaintances. There is a supreme irony here since same-sex relationships were naturally borne in the all-male environment of the English boarding school system.

Orlando has the personality of a Victorian maid when it comes to his love affair with Jonty, who is much more blasé about life. When they're at home on campus and know the lay of the land (literally and socially), everything is fine. But when they go on holiday to the Isle of Jersey, Orlando's insecurities and fears almost get the best of him. Jonty does an excellent job showing him how to relax and enjoy more of what life has to offer. These scenes were great fun because Jonty delighted in getting Orlando's goat any chance he could.

Jonty also does his best to get further into Orlando's pants. You see, they have yet to consummate their love and only engage in kisses and hand jobs. Jonty wants more and uses considerable charm and patience to bring Orlando around to his way of thinking. The descriptions of their sexual intimacies are very oblique. If you're looking for explicit sex, you won't find it here. What you will find are numerous romantic passages in which the men beautifully and poignantly declare and demonstrate their love for one another.

As the men attempt to enjoy their holiday they become embroiled in a murder mystery involving an intriguing cast of characters. The mystery was well developed with lots of clues strewn around a la Sherlock Holmes and the resolution was very satisfying. The pacing in the first half of the story was somewhat slow for this reader, but the second half moved much more briskly. Overall, I enjoyed Cochrane's British writing style, the natural descriptions of the setting and the way in which the characters expressed themselves.

I had not read the first book in the series and experienced no trouble following the story. I was a little curious to know the details of previous events that were referenced in the story but not enough that I needed to read the previous book to understand the plot.

If you're already fans of Jonty and Orlando, you'll be pleased with the new developments in their relationship, and if you're new to the gentlemen fellows, you'll be delightfully charmed by their old-fashioned love affair.

The first book in the Cambridge Fellows Mystery series is "Lessons in Love" and the forthcoming third title is "Lessons in Discovery."

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