Southern Fried
October 18, 2011
8 Comments
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Title: Southern Fried
Author: Rob Rosen
Cover Art: Deanna C. Jamroz
Publisher: MLR Press
Buy Link: Southern Fried
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance / Mystery
Length: 78,000 words
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 rating stars
A Guest Review by Raine
Summary Review: The fortunes and misfortunes of Trip Jackson; this enthusiastically deep southern mystery romp is packed full of unhealthy food and rather outrageous sex.
Blurb: Southern Fried, the romantic misadventure of Trip Jackson and his stable boy, Zeb Jones, is about the love of family, the love of one’s heritage, and the love between friends, both old and new. It’s as antebellum as Tara ever was, but with a deliciously suspenseful and sexy twist. Because what our heroes are quick to discover is that not all is as it appears to be, and sometimes life can get turned upside down when you least expect it. Especially when lip-smacking romance, deep-dish humor, and a side of mystery fall on your plate, all, of course, served up southern-style.
Review:
Southern Fried begins with the hero, Trip Jackson chatting with instant familiarity to his audience. His playful, flirty, teasing voice narrates the story like a sudden and new found BFF. He shares his confidences with us, and indeed we are thrown into the intimacies of his life with little warning. His Granny has died, and he has come home from New York back to the privileged home of his childhood deep in South Carolina. Think of every traditional southern homespun cliché and it is dusted off and displayed with unapologetic charm. The boisterous story deals elastically with a few generations of family problems—death, murder, blackmail, rape, secrets, birth, deep fried food and bounces from sex scene to sex scene. Every appetite is displayed in Rob Rosen’s episodic take on the lost heir mystery.
The book’s sexual stance starts off as very much a series of exhibitionistic bawdy romps, and I confess I feared this was going to get tedious. However although we end up sharing a lot of lewd behaviour, it is written with a kind of naughty but niceness that I found appealing. Clearly Trip and Zeb, his new found partner in sexual crimes against the bland, have similar voyeuristic tastes, which keep the action hot and bothered. Moreover the book goes on to reveal Trip’s genuinely warm personality and his instinctive kindness adds the right amount of affection to the sexual antics.
The rest of the cast in Southern Fried are mostly taken from the staff of Granny’s mansion. Zeb starts the book a gorgeous, high-spirited groom and his lively loyalty is very enjoyable as he quickly becomes Trip’s special friend! Housekeeper/cook Pearl is almost the mother Trip has lost. She provides much of the enthusiastically mentioned fat-, salt- and sugar-rich southern food. There is a lot of extracurricular eating in this book. We also have Jeeves the butler, Betty the maid, Roy the gardener, Jake the poolman and last but not least Stella the handyman. It is among these characters that Trip finds the kind of friends who can become almost better than family. I liked how some of Trip’s employees joined the cause and worked pluckily together in various ridiculous ways to try and help solve the mystery.
The plot is busy and the action moves along with some pace. There are some funny set piece scenes here. Unexpectedly I found the funeral eulogy by Trip provoked a few giggles and the later reading of the will was pretty good too. The villains of this piece were realistic enough within this setting to provide effective tension. Romantically, this story does not follow a traditional arc but the opportunistic sex between Trip and Zeb does also develop emotionally beyond this.
The success of this light-hearted but true relationship reflects why the book worked for me. It might seem contrary, but sometimes an over-intimacy with a narrator can have the effect of actually alienating an audience. Because every time Trip talks to his audience directly he disturbs the surface of the stories illusion—the suspension of disbelief—the often comedic value challenges the deeper empathic feelings of being part of the story. Southern Fried is saved from what could have been a rather cold superficiality by the honest warmth of Trip’s all-pervading personality. Indeed the composition here was carefully balanced as the story gained in warmth and affection. I thought Trip even grew slightly in maturity as the idiosyncratic adventure progressed.
Southern Fried is an exhausting, light-hearted, funny, flippant and rude romp of a novel but it is not shallow; I enjoyed the assured writing very much.
Recommended
Author Information
Wave
Madonna196
Bogusia
Larissa
Sirius
Oh sold, thank you very much . Love funny mysteries.
Hey Sirius, check out the extract first, cos Trip has singular voice you might not like and also there is more sex than mystery!
Hope you enjoy.
Was walking in circles around this one for a while…
I think I am going to buy
I really like that phrase ‘ walking in circles around this one ‘ Hellga, I do that a lot with writers I don’t know.
Rob Rosen clearly has very distinctive style and if you enjoy that then hopefully this will be fun for you.
I’ve read some of Rob Rosen’s shorts which are usually sex romps but this one actually has a plot and your review sold me on it.
I also LOVE books with and about food.
Thanks Raine
Hello Wave
I tried the extract of ‘Sparkle…….’ and decided against it, because it seemed just as you describe. That’s the only other of his I have come across. I’m guessing that Rob Rosen has a very strong personal style to his books….that readers either like or dislike a lot.
I am easily seduced by dominant individual voices in books and I liked Trip’s enthusiasm.
There is a lot of region specific food, and I loved that, even though I’m never going to get to try any of it. I’ll have to stick to Yorkshire pudding!
Raine, hello. Saw your comments and would be delighted to email you a free PDF of Sparkle, if you like. There’s virtually no sex in it, BTW. As for Southern Fried, the sex is at a minimum and only adds to the story. In any case, email me if you’d like the PDF – therobrosen@yahoo.com
All my best, Rob
Hi Rob
that is a very kind thought, thank you. However you probably won’t be surprised to know that I’ve asked Wave for a copy to review!
I really enjoyed Trip, his take on life and his adventure’s. I think his funeral eulogy was perfect.
Thanks again.