Desert Getaway

Dante O'Donnell is white, gay and getting older every day. He has wasted his better years on starstruck dreams and the wrong men, so now he's working as a concierge for a vacation-rental outfit in Palm Springs, where the guests have far more baggage than what's packed in their suitcases. But when he finds a dead body floating in the swimming pool at one of his rentals, his own troubled past comes back to haunt him. So he turns for help to Jazz Friendly, a Black woman who, when she was a Palm Springs cop, nearly arrested him for murdering his husband, which he didn't do...not that he knows who did. Now Jazz is a struggling PI, her career derailed by racism. And with her marriage broken by booze, she's desperate to get custody of her kid. Dante and Jazz need each other to solve this murder...and to save themselves from personal and professional disaster. "Michael Craft is bound to nab accolades for his new novel...one that weds the shadowy mystique of noir and the sunny beauty of the desert to winning ends." Craft, as always, mixes plot and dialogue deftly, stirring humor, humanity, and mayhem to create believable characters that go about the business of solving crime with a twist of wry. You'll beg to see more of these two." "Michael Craft delivers an irresistible high camp twist to the classic detective mystery. A fast-paced and captivating opening to a promising new series." J.D. Horn, bestselling author of "A quick-witted, entertaining mystery loaded with Palm Springs atmosphere. Smart, sophisticated, and ingeniously plotted. I loved it." Ellen Byron, bestselling author of the "One can practically see John Waters in the background clapping with glee." The author injects a lot of humour, campy wit and nuance into the proceedings, and keeps the plot stirring at a brisk pace."