Author: Katie Allen
Publisher URL: ellora’s cave
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: novel
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
THE BLURB
Ex-cop Isaac Rhodes is a tough and intimidating private investigator with a talent for kicking in doors and knocking bail jumpers’ heads together. His only soft spot is for his partner, Nate Washington—though Wash makes him anything but soft. He’s silently lusted after Wash for a year, until his desire drives him to finally come out to his partner.
This confession leads to Wash admitting a few secrets of his own, unleashing needs that result in hot, sweaty, sexy, man- on-man intimacy. Rhodes is elated…until Wash admits he’s unsure if he’s willing to endure the often prejudice-filled life of an outed gay man. Crushed, Rhodes backs off. But one missing child case—and a gun to Wash’s head—convinces Rhodes to do whatever it takes to get his man.
THE REVIEW
Isaac Rhodes or “Rhodie” as his partner Nate Washington calls him, is a tough private investigator and ex cop who is in love with his business partner of 12 months. “Wash” as he calls Nate, is his morning, afternoon and evening delight – there’s no time of day when he doesn’t think of Wash and wish he could tell him how he feels about him. But Wash is straight, and outing himself would make working together untenable, so Rhodes lusts after Wash from afar, until one night in a bar he could not keep his mouth shut.
At first it seemed that Wash would not be able to handle having a gay partner, until it becomes clear why he’s upset — he is not entirely straight himself and he wants Rhodes as well, but there’s a major problem, he’s not sure he could handle having sex with him and being out because he had seen the way other gays were treated in the workplace, especially in their business. Rhodes had been fired from his job as a police detective on a trumped-up charge because his colleagues in the department didn’t want to work with a gay cop. Since then he had been working for Wash as a private investigator and they had great chemistry as business partners. Now that Wash knows Rhodes is gay he is having difficulty controlling his attraction toward him and as for Rhodes, the knowledge that Wash is at least bi fuels his libido. Rhodes goes after Wash who is only too eager to have some fun. After one full-out sex-filled night when Rhodes thought his dream of having Wash in his bed from then on was going to be fulfilled, Wash pulled the rug out from under him and told him that he’s not sure the life of a gay man is what he wants; his dreams of a wife and the white picket fence would all be history if he became Rhodes’ lover.
Rhodes is, of course, devastated but he decides to concentrate on their current case which involves missing kids who are either ending up dead or as sex slaves for old perverts. The villain of the piece is Barry Ness, a local philanthropist who uses the youth centre as his hunting ground. Rhodes and Wash join forces with their friend Detective Gomez who had the foulest mouth but the kindest heart and a soft spot for Rhodes, but naturally they don’t share all their information with her.
The chemistry between the protags was palpable. Wash is sweet and vulnerable but in a kickass way and very confused about his sexuality. The dialogue in the book was really funny and the best lines were when the guys were in bed together. Some ‘moments’ were laugh out loud, and here are a couple of quotes -
“What are you doing?” Rhodes gasped. His hips lifted toward his partner’s grip and Wash took advantage of the movement to tug Rhodes’ jeans and briefs down his thighs. “You can’t tell?” With a wicked glance through his lashes, Wash lowered his head and kissed the tip of Rhodes’ cock. “Jesus Christ!” Wash lifted his head and grinned. “Not quite, but thanks.”
“The club’s called Stand and Deliver,” he read, glancing up at Rhodes. “Never heard of it. Must be a new place.”
Pressing back a smile, Rhodes shook his head. “It’s been there awhile.” “You’ve been to it?” “No,” Rhodes said. “Too trendy for me.”
“Why haven’t I heard of it? I go to more clubs than you do.” Wash sounded so peeved that Rhodes’ grin broke through.
“You’re not as cool as you think, man,” Rhodes told him. “Sad.” “F**k off,” Wash said, bumping him with his shoulder. His face lit up with realization. “It’s a gay club, isn’t it? That’s why I haven’t been there!” Rhodes shrugged affirmatively. “Think I should check it out tonight?”
“We’ll both go.” At Rhodes startled glance, Wash grinned. “You might need backup. C’mon, it’ll be fun—like a date.”Wash laughed. “Let’s go turn some heads.” “What’s so funny?” Rhodes asked, feeling his own smile “I’m going cock-hunting with you. “Get a move on. We need to find some male tail!”This type of dialogue continues throughout the book and gets funnier as the story progresses.
The characters were three dimensional and so hot that if this were a print book the pages would go up in flames. The character of Trevor, a great looking bouncer at the club owned by Ness, was a great foil for Wash. He wants Rhodes badly who has a sparkle in his eyes every time he looks at Trevor; Wash has a tough time watching them together even though he’s ambivalent about having an ongoing sexual relationship with Rhodes - he definitely wants to have his cake and eat it.:)
The action is fast and furious and the story is kept at a high intensity level. Even without the great sex, this is without a doubt one of the most entertaining and funniest books I have read in a while and certainly one of the sexiest. I have never read a book before by this author and when I checked her website I realized why – this seems to be Katie Allen’s only M/M book, which is a pity. I loved the characterizations, even the minor ones, including the cops who hated gays; no one was a caricature. There were even two kids in the book that pulled at my heartstrings.
I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about Private Dicks (I hate it when that happens)!*g* Definitely recommended!
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Luckily for us Katie Allen is writing a sequel to Private Dicks. It will be Trevor’s story (this was in her blog). So yay!
Okay, I snicker like a 12 year old boy when I read that title.
Sounds like a great read, when going through a list of books I noticed I have an inordinate amount of cop/pi/mystery type books. Must be a hold-over from my mystery days. 
I’ll definitely check it out.
Sigh, I’m still American. *Ooooh say can you seeeeee? …* I should at least be British or Australian. *God save the Queen*
Sari
Thanks for telling me that Katie is writing Trevor’s story. He’s a wonderful character. I don’t visit EC often – when I bought Private Dicks I hadn’t been there in about 4 months. I’ll keep an eye out for Trevor’s story.
Tam
You’ll definitely love the story and you’ll want to take both Rhodie and Wash home. Once I started reading Private Dicks (you have a dirty mind) I couldn’t put it down. If there were flaws in the story (I’m sure there probably were) I was too busy enjoying it to find them.:)
Great review, Wave!
This sounds like a great read. I ‘ll have to add it to my TBB. It’s been months since I’ve been to EC. Thanks
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
Nice review, Wave! I’m finding that more and more I like having humor in the books I read. Banter and sharp wit, especially. I will have to make the trip over to EC to pick this one up!
Wren
Sorry, I missed your comment. This was a really funny AND sexy book with an actual plot. I don’t think you should miss this one.
Lily
I don’t usually shop at EC but sometimes they have some pretty good stories (you just have to dig hard to find them) *g*
Hi Sandra
Thanks for visiting and I hope you come back again and again and again.:)
Hahahaha Knew you’d like it! This was a very good book. I especially love the club scene!
Larissa
I love you for this rec. Any more recommendations like this? I really enjoyed it, especially the club scene( as I’m sure you figured).:)
Wave: There are a few more I think you’ll love, but I have to look them up when I got my own laptop again. I’m currently at my dad’s with my old laptop
I’ll look forward to receiving your recs. My choices don’t seem to pan out lately.*g*
I read Private Dicks several months ago. I never randomly buy books (without reading a review first), but I couldn’t pass up this title (I love detective stories… and dicks… but that’s private
The club scene is great. And it is very funny… and very suspenseful – the bad guy here is really bad. I loved Trevor’s character; he definitely deserves his own book or at least a three-way with Rhodes and Wash!
Diane
You love dicks er….. detectives? Which one?
This was a really cool book and I loved it. It was an unexpected gift (as in recommendation) from Larissa.
Can’t wait for Trevor’s story and don’t hold your breath, I don’t think Wash will let Rhodes near Trevor for a three way. If you were Wash, would you?
I love your site.
Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that I
Hi Angelina
Thanks for the kind words. The design is Christian’s idea – all I provided were the pictures. I’m sure he appreciates your compliment.
Thank you for such a wonderful review, Wave! (I can tell that I’ve just been writing a sex scene, since I just typed “suck” instead of “such”.) This is a great Website (and I’m not just saying that because you liked my book).
Hi Katie
I really liked Private Dicks and I’m sure you had a lot of fun with the name.*g* These two characters were great on their own and even better together. You did a wonderful job and I’m really looking forward to Trevor’s story. I wouldn’t tell Christian what you typed if I were you.:) He designed the site BTW – I’m so lucky to have him as part of the team – thank you on his behalf!
Please let me know when Trevor’s story is ready since I very rarely check out EC because they don’t have a lot of M/M books and this site only reviews M/M. Soon they won’t have any more new M/M stories so I won’t be visiting and therefore might miss Trevor’s story.
Thank you! I did have fun with the title (and I normally HATE thinking of titles). My publisher’s comment to my editor when she first saw it was, “This better be about private investigators!” Hee.
I will definitely let you know how Trevor’s story progresses, but don’t give up on EC’s M/M offerings–Ellora’s Cave WILL continue to publish M/M (I double-checked with Kelli Collins, the Editor-in-Chief at EC, just to make sure. I tend to be an e-hermit and miss big announcements of this sort). Besides Trev’s book, I also have two other M/M manuscripts planned for the next year. Kelli said to definitely keep the M/M submissions coming.
Thanks again–I’m so glad you enjoyed Private Dicks (hee, that still cracks me up)!
Did I hear my name?
Yep, EC’s got tons of M/M (and even more Menage, which is almost exclusively M/M/F or M/F/M). We’ve never had plans to stop accepting; readers love it.
Thanks for the great review of Private Dicks! Katie deserves it…she’s one of our best.
And I love the site; very niche, very necessary, what with all the good M/M books these days.
Kelli C
Hi Kelli
Thanks for dropping by, I appreciate you taking the time.
This site is exclusively M/M, we don’t review other GBLT books or menages, even if they are M/M/F. I’m pleased to hear that EC has had a change of heart – there was a communication from EC to its authors several months ago that books in this sub genre would no longer be accepted by EC for 2010 and a number of your M/M authors were very disappointed.
Katie is a terrific author and I thought that it would be a pity if Private Dicks were her only M/M book but now we’re all looking forward to Trevor’s story and maybe many more.
Katie
EC sent out an announcement to its authors several months ago (one of them sent me the actual communication from either the Editor or the Publisher) requesting that they not sub any M/M stories to EC for 2010 because, in their words, “that fad had run its course”. A number of their M/M authors are now subbing their stuff to other pubs. It’s news to me that they will continue to offer M/M titles. However, that aside I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do with Trevor and I’m very happy that you have come over to the dark side, if only for a short while.:)
When Larissa, one of the “regulars” on the site, recommended Private Dicks to me I thought she was kidding about the name – it really was a stroke of genius.*g* I’m waiting to see if lightning can strike twice with Trevor’s story.
Wow, Wave, that’s so distressing to read. Well, having been with EC for 5 years now, all I can do is assure you no member of EC management has *ever* released any such memo to staff. I hate to think of all the great books we may have missed out on! Off to remind our editors of what we’re accepting…
(Thanks for letting me post, and at least assure your readers.)
Sign: umsun Hello!!! rcuwwymhyw and 2648ssgfhphzye and 7438I love your blog.
I just came across your blog.
If EC does continue with m/m lit, they should create a mailing list for new titles and post it here.
Hi Diane
*
I guess I could be nice to them:) after all they did print my article in February (with Evangeline Anderson) about Hot Manlove – Why It Turns Women and Gay Men On. Here’s the link in case you didn’t see it –
http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/?p=340
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I do wish that EC would separate M/M from M/M/F on their site because I have to wade through everything under their “Male/Male” category to find the M/M books which do not include menage relationships.
I am really eager to read this apparently wonderful book. Great review, Wave
One of my pet peeves is wading through either all gay titles (m/m, f/f, menage) lumped together, or m/m and menage together, on publisher websites. In fact, I recently wrote to several of them complaining and, as a reader and customer, asking for a change. And don’t get me started on overall design and usability on almost every pub site. It makes me not even want to buy books because of what I have to do to find them.
Hi Lynn
It really was a terrific read. I hope you are able to get it soon (before it sells out at EC) tee hee hee!
*
I really do hate it when the M/M and menage titles are lumped together. Maybe I’ll write Kelli C to see if they can do ALL M/M readers a huge favour and stop this practice which we all find very annoying. I don’t understand why EC does it because they have a “menage” category as well, and I know that most M/M readers abhor menage so they won’t buy those titles even if they were shoved in front of their faces.
*
Let me know what you think of the book after you read it.
I know I’m posting late on this. After seeing this review, I went to EC’s site and purchased the ebook. And read it. And loved it!!! I’m looking forward to Trevor’s story. So thanks for the review, Wave!
*
I hardly ever shop at EC and it is because of the problem as Aunt Lynn stated – I Hate wading through the menage to find the m/m. I just don’t get why some pubs think they go together. Is it a sales tactic to get the menage readers to try out some m/m? It’s aggravating, and so unless someone points out a good read from EC, I don’t bother. Just my two cents.
Hi Wren
You’re not late – no one is ever late on this site.:) I’m so happy (and so will Katie be I’m sure, ka ching.*g*) that you liked Private Dicks. We should all be thanking Larissa who emailed me about this book.
*
As for wading through all of the menage titles to get to the M/M, see my comments to Aunt Lynn above. I don’t know what the strategy is but the majority of true M/M readers don’t read menage stories, so if it is to get us to buy menage it won’t work.
Hey, the flags are working now. I must thank Christian!
Wave, just finished this wonderful book. Loved. It. Great characters, good plot and pacing, loved the protags and their dialog. Funny and hot, a great combo. And yeah, looking forward to Trevor’s story.
Lynn
I’m so glad you loved the story. Most of the time we review stories that are not exactly fun reads but this one had everything – great characters, good plot, humour and lots of smokin’ sex.
*
Really looking forward to Trevor’s story and I hope that Katie has Rhodie and Wash make a few appearances.
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