Neil S. PlakcyCritiques

Aidan and Liam are asked to guard an unwillingly-retired minor Russian oligarch in self-imposed exile in Monaco, who has had attempts made on his life, but by whom?

As they approach the big 40 the boys are wondering if they are aging out of the personal protection business and TBH I'm wondering the same about this series. This entry felt kind of meh. I also read the first chapter of the next one and am not feeling any urge to continue. Maybe another time.

Downloaded from Hoopla

Downloaded from Hoopla

Downloaded from Hoopla

Aidan and Liam's latest client is a former porn star who has a stalker.

Each volume in this series seems to have more sex more explicitly described. But unicorn porn? Really?

Aidan and Liam are asked by Aidan's cousin to protect her cousins on the other side, who are Turkish Jews living in Istanbul and have been receiving death threats over a development project.

Even Aidan had to draw a family tree to keep everybody straight in his mind, so it would have been nice to provide one for the reader. But still an entertaining thriller.

A few days after Steve and Rochester find an old man with Alzheimer's wandering lost by the river, his drowned body is found. Did he fall or given his unsavoury history as a slumlord, was he pushed?

The author is back on form in this one, with an interesting mystery contrasted with developments in Steve and Lili's relationship.½

Dog's Green Earth
The morning after a rancorous committee meeting of Steve Levitan's HOA board, the site manager's body is found in the park.

Par for the course in this mystery series, though a trifle platitudinous as Steve dishes out relationship advice.

A Litter of Golden Mysteries
Some short stories giving us a glimpse of Steve Levitan and Rochester's life in between murders.

Inevitably there is quite a lot of repetition of Steve and Rochester's back story as most of the stories had been published separately. Perhaps the stories best serve those who don't the series at all or who are completists.

Dog Willing
An unpleasant bookshop owner pursuing a vendetta against food trucks she claims are taking over the car park in the mall where her shop is located is found dead, poisoned after eating the food given to her by the food truck owners as a peace offering. The owner of one of Rochester's doggy friends is the main suspect so Steve investigates.

The mystery itself was OK but unfortunately Steve Levitan, the narrator, is getting involved in campus committees and his prose becomes as leaden as a worthy press release.½

Steve Levitan is asked to help an old schoolfriend who is accused of murdering her husband.

A good cozy that doesn't strain the brain. Just the thing for reading on a long flight without much sleep.

This was a really well told mystery. I bought the first 3 volumes as a single ebook, so the only surprise was the amount of graphic gay sex in it. This wasn’t a problem, but like many books graphic sex scenes are not needed for it to a good book, and this was a really good book. I only mention the sex because if your not expecting it, it could be a surprise. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that it was a little overly long. I look forward to reading other books in the series as the main character Kimo is very likable!

Great idea for a book title each short story from a Jimmy Buffett song title.
Some of the stories are better than others Truck stop salvation, and Smart Woman in a Really Short Skirt, were both great. And some stories also stick to the storyline or loosely to what the song is about
Pascagoula Run and Who’s the Blonde Stranger.
Anyway a fun easy read.

Biff is a genie who is hired by a local photographer to locate some missing pictures. She however is killed and this puts Biff onto the trail of the Russian mob. Along the way he picks up a squirrel sidekick. Fun book but the Russian names are a chore at times.

These two guys were the definition of insecure. Their problems with trust and communication did not help matters at all. I enjoyed the tea and cocktail aspect of the story as I'm a tea fan myself. I need to go back and read the prior books in this series.

I'm a big fan of Mr. Plakcy's Mahu series. This well put together story did not disappoint. Angus is like a dog with a bone once he gets involved. I enjoyed his budding relationship with Lester and hope that it continues. Both Vito and Roly played out great parts as Angus's mentors. A very enjoyable traipse through the Miami area.

All the Mahu books are worth reading. Kimo Kapana is a kind, gentle gay man that you root for in every book.

I skipped stories from authors that rate all their books. It's not the case with those that only rate antologies; I still don't like it but I can understand it like a recognition to their co-authors.


The Legend of Mountain Ash by Ruth Sims - 3 stars
Inner Truth by Alex Beecroft - 2 stars
Turnabout by Lee Rowan - 2,5 stars
Under the Shadow of Your Wings by Gillian Palmer. - 2 stars
Home Cooking by Brian Holiday - 4 stars
Mister Right by Rob Rosen - Skipped
Two Men: A Fugue by Sophia Deri-Bowen - 5 stars!!
Stripes by Nigel Puerasch - 4 stars
Morbidly Obese by Rick R. Reed - 2 stars
The Song Inside by Nexis Pas - 3,5 stars
Hitched by Michael Gouda - 1,5 stars
Cakewalk by Nathan Burgoine - 4 stars
Ships That Pass by Jamie Freeman - 2 stars
Work Experience by Bruin Fisher - 3 stars
Even Guys Cry by D.C. Juris - 2 stars
Touche by James Buchanan - 2 stars
Mallory's Gift by L-J Baker - 3 stars
The Uneven Chance by Charlie Cochrane - 3 stars
Honolulu Hula by Neil S. Plakcy - Skipped
Elephants in Her Tea by Julia Rios - 1,5 stars
Aim Higher by J.L Merrow - 3 stars
Ganymede by Lenore Black - 2,5 stars

When a local rabbi's brother from several states away is murdered, Steve Levitan offers to help find out what he had been doing in the area. Is the murder related to the murder of a Holocaust survivor and his rabbi in the late 1940s?

A quick enjoyable read but with a somewhat darker background than the usual cozy.

Steve Levitan's friend Doug is found drowned in a local canal shortly after telling Steve that he suspects that the investment company he is working for may be involved in a Ponzi scheme. Although Steve's policeman friend Rick thinks Doug committed suicide, Steve and Rochester are not convinced.

I had an enjoyable time following along with the gang, even if the mystery was solved by outside events rather than Steve's little grey cells.

This was a fluffy little mystery sprinkled with graphic sex scenes. This has a few classic tropes intermingled - upstairs/downstairs and class issues and a whole lot of insta-love which was laid out very sappily. Not the best writing or plot but an easy, quick read.

This is the third of Neil Plakcy's books that I have read, which follow the adventures of Steve Levitan and his idiot savant golden retriever, Rochester. I liked the first two fairly well, but I had some issues with this one. It's silly the things that bother one. I understand fiction isn't necessarily "real", but things more-or-less should happen as they would in the real world.

My first problem, came when Steve and his friend Rick went to a snooty dog-training Nazi's location to check out her agility training course. Rick had been taking lessons from the woman. Well, immediately, the idiot savant Rochester went through the course with only a few mishaps. The problem here for me is that, in real life, a dog-training Nazi would never let a dog that hadn't even had the most basic behavioral training—sit, stay, come, heal, down—get within a mile of her agility training course. She would know instantly that Rochester lacked even the most elementary training because he was on a retractable leash. No one who understood even elementary level dog training would ever use a retractable leash.

Well, perhaps I'm being a bit severe. Rochester is, after all, rather an idiot savant of a dog. The thing that really bugged the crap out of me is that Steve went outside at one point and looked up to see the constellation Orion. What's wrong with that? Well, in the book we're nearing graduation. Trees have leaves and cast shade. That means we're talking about May or June. There's no way in hell one is going to see Orion in May or June. Nope, Orion is a winter constellation that one sees in December and January. Neil Plakcy should do a little research before he puts his fingers on the keyboard. For shame!

This book is really ***- rather than a plain ***.

4.5 stars
Ono (means yummy or good). Pogs! Boogie boards! Oahu! I wanna go back. There's nothing like getting to the end of a book and wanting to continue. Unfortunately, I only just ordered the rest of the series this morning, so it'll be at least a week .... >sigh
At first, I thought the writing a little choppy and slow, but it soon picked up and smoothed out, sweeping along like a perfect wave under a surf board, making the story fly in a almost perfect ride. (For the record, the closest I ever got to surfing was a boogie board, which holds its own magic.)

I like Kimo, the protagonist, who, at the start of the story is in denial of his orientation, dating women one after another, trying to find the one who would make him happy until the night he walks into a gay bar, witnesses a murder, and finds his old life unraveling along with the lies and the denials. Along the way we meet his parents, who, though confused, prove to be the most supportive people he could have, his brothers, Haoa and Lui, who are not happy at their youngest brother's unexpected revelations, and his best friend, Harry. The brothers soon come around (thanks in part to their wives) and help at a critical juncture in the story.

At its heart, this book is about a guy who is just beginning to discover himself. He's a homicide detective and proud of the fact, but dismayed by the possible loss of his job due to prejudice (note this book was originally published in 2005; hopefully, things have improved since then in reality). He's ostracized by his boss and his colleagues and finds himself in hot water for some missteps at the beginning of the case he and his partner, Akoni, are investigating. To make things more confusing, Kimo finds he's attracted to one of the suspects in the case.

There's a nice mix of personal angst, family unity of all sorts, unexpected support from unexpected places, walking around Waikiki, surfing lore, lovely Hawai'ian words, and the music of the islands. This is a definite reread.

I like the way Kimo is developing. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Great book.

“Though full-figured, she had a pretty face, …”

Meaning, presumably, because she was full-figured she should have been ugly??

It gets worse. He describes an elderly woman: “Though I’d never say it to her face, I thought she looked like a gerbil, as if she ate chopped lettuce at every meal and lived in a pile of shredded newspaper.” He hasn’t once described the male main character or other male characters. And I so wanted to read about the dog. But I had to bail on this one.½

These short stories were enjoyable but perhaps really only for completists