I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
The Boy With The Painful Tattoo
by
Josh Lanyon
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by JustJoshin Publishing Inc. on July 1, 2020 and has 242 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Fatal Shadows, Death of a Pirate King, A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Dark Tide, Somebody Killed His Editor, Fair Play, Fair Chance, "So This is Christmas", Murder at Pirate's Cove, Secret at Skull House, Footsteps in the Dark, Mystery at the Masquerade, The Dark Farewell, “A Funny Thing Happened . . .”, Murder Takes the High Road, Fair Game, Corpse at Captain's Seat, Scandal at the Salty Dog, Body at Buccaneer's Bay, Lament at Loon Landing, Death at the Deep Dive
Third in the Holmes & Moriarity cozy mystery series revolving around Kit Marlowe, an established writer and reluctant investigator who keeps falling over dead bodies.
My Take
I do miss San Francisco, and Holmes and Moriarity’s new house sounds gorgeous.
Lanyon is using first person protagonist point-of-view from Kit’s perspective, and oy, the time he spends angsting about this move and his stalled career. This change in his life. This, this moving in with JX! And no yelling! What’s with that?
Lol, who knew writers had to have tattoos?! Rachel wants Kit to consider Scandinavian crime fiction. And man, is she ever pushy! I don’t think she even listens to Kit.
Hmm, there’s a nice bit of show in describing Kit’s character. He actually likes chain stores — you always know what you’ll get. His social awkwardness versus JX’s spontaneity. Kit’s thoughts on sex — how realistic, lol! There’s also a nice bit showcasing Kit’s knowledge about coin collecting from his story research. We also get a bit of back history on how Kit and JX met.
Nina and Gage hate Kit. That will be an interesting relationship to watch. Jerry. Who knows what’s going on with Jerry. First he’s gushing, then he’s dishing. And man, that’s some “dish”.
Conflict rises up quickly what with the broken sprinkler head (I remember running to our building manager during a rainstorm because water was GUSHING out of the ground — I thought it was a broken head. Wisconsin doesn’t need sprinkling systems. Duh.), the dead body in the crate, the overzealous fan, “in-law” and friend encounters — all in the first quarter of the story.
Pushy reporters, the question of control, the clash of tastes in art and acceptance, the fraught nature of relationships — it’s life.
Lanyon’s protagonists, Adrien English Mysteries and Kit Holmes, have an issue in common. They both have physical problems, and I can’t remember if other protagonists in other series/stories also have physical problems. I’ll have to pay attention.
There’s plenty of action as well with this crazy range of characters, what with invasions, chases, and confessions. There’s plenty of humor too, a lot of it snarky. Explains why I like it. Such a lovely build-up of JX’s actions that just prove his love. Only to come crashing down.
What is it with people thinking they can do as they like? All those excuses. The lazy sods.
Then there’s that ending . . . gotcha!
The Story
Kit has just moved in with JX. Into a gorgeous San Francisco mansion with its Tommy Church back garden and immediately there’s a dead body.
Pushed into “researching” Nordic noir and then Lorenson pushing Kit into investigating his coin theft.
Pushing, pushing, pushing. Everyone is pushing!
The Characters
Christopher “Kit” Holmes is a crime writer whose main character is Miss Butterwith, an elderly lady botanist, along with Mr Pinkerton and Inspector Appleby. Rachel “Ving the Merciless” Ving is Kit’s agent in New York. Anna Hitchcock had been Kit’s mentor (All She Wrote, 2).
Julian Xavier “JX” Moriarity, who used to be a cop with the SFPD and is now a bestselling writer of crime novels and thrillers, is Kit’s boyfriend. His Dirk Van de Meer series will be translated into Japanese. Simon Legre is JX’s agent.
Emmaline Bloodworth, a retired botany teacher who now paints, is their next-door neighbor. On the left. Pinky is her tabby cat. On the right are the Tunnys. Twins . . . and old codgers who hunker down behind a formidable wall. The Salvatierras live across the street. Mr Lemon is a retired history professor. Jerry Knight is a fan of Kit’s.
SF PD
Inspector Ishwar “Izzie Jones” Jones is with Homicide and had been JX’s partner.
The helpless Nina is JX’s ex-wife. Gage is his nephew and Nina’s son. Hoo boy, is that a story! Alex had been JX’s younger brother. Laura Moriarity is JX’s mother.
Murder in Midtown is a writing convention in Washington D.C. (All She Wrote). The 19th annual Murder in Midtown mystery fiction convention is in Las Vegas. The Mean Streets award. Adrien English owns a bookstore, Cloak and Dagger, in Los Angeles (Death of a Pirate King, 4). Jake is Adrien’s boyfriend and a private investigator these days. Jason Leland seems to be a series Adrien writes. Mindy Newburgh is one of the authors Kit knows. Wheaton and Woodhouse is a publisher for whom Kit does not want to write. Niclas Salomonsson is an agent for writers of Scandinavian crime. Samantha is a fellow convention-goer.
The manipulative Alan Lorenson is a collector of Scandinavian coins that had been on display at the Quercus Gallery owned by John Cantrell. Nord is his son and married to Judith. Kenneth (Sydney Nightingale, his fiancée, is a reporter with Baywatch News) and Cynthia are their children. The churchy Karla is Alan’s daughter and married to Lloyd Edwards; Ingrid is their daughter.
Rina is Kit’s Southern California Realtor. Movers and Shakers Relocation Company is Kit’s movers. Elijah Ladas is an art thief as well as co-writer of pulpy thrillers; Edward Cortez had been his partner in writing the Lazlo Ender series. Beck Ladas is Elijah’s younger “troglodyte” brother. Cindy Spann owns Dolls and Doodads. I cannot recommend the Dew Drop Inn with its Our Lady of the Severed Head. The Langham Huntington, a luxury hotel, sounds much better. David is Kit’s cheating ex. And Dimitri Foden murdered Julia Clare Hargetter. In their house.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a bright grass green background with a stylized black silhouette of a dragon head in profile. At the very top is an info blurb in black with the author’s name immediately beneath it in white. Under the graphic is the title also in white with the series info at the bottom in black. I liked the typewriter silhouette serving as the separator between the series name and the number it is within the series.
The title is more of a metaphor with Kit as The Boy With The Painful Tattoo, representing all his issues.
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