Ready to Serve

Title and Link: Ready to Serve
Author: James Buchanan,
Publisher: Lethe Press,
Genre: Contemporary,
Length: short story collection (178 pages)
Rating:  4.50 stars out of 5

A guest review by Val Kovalin

THE BLURB:

James Buchanan offers readers six tales of sultry encounters between policemen, firemen and officers of the border patrol along with a few irresistible ne’er-do-wells.

”Pat Down” – What happens when two guys who secretly lusted after each other in high school wind up face to face, especially when one has become a cop and the other is, well, a bad boy?

”Speed Trap” – Officer Manley is none too happy about Pete Masters making fun of him and his speed trap until he confronts Pete and gets a whole other type of tease.

”Burn Zone” – After losing his teammates in an out-of-control brushfire, Smoke Jumper Tyson retreats from the world, but his two roommates force him to face his guilt while affirming the unique bond they share.

”Risk” – While two crime scene cleaners face hazards in their job, they understand, from their love, it’s all about learning how to deal with both the physical and the emotional risks.

”Coyote Crossing” – Border Patrol Agent Rick Franco runs back home to Deming to forget his recent past. When he picks up his best friend’s little brother on an illegal border crossing raid, however, his past may help him move forward into the future.

”Fairground” – Uptight and driven, Sergeant Don Lo pieces together the strange pattern of thefts at the county fair while fighting his attraction to the maintenance chief, Vito Marzi. Don needs the help of the older, mellower man to teach him to relax, let go of his prejudices and see the bigger picture to solve this riddle.

THE REVIEW:

These six stories give us everyday guys who happen to be gay and in high-risk professions. They must balance their romantic relationships with the stresses of their jobs. In these stories, the relationships are often interracial or multicultural. The jobs, which center on law-enforcement, are told from an insider perspective, complete with realistic, three-dimensional details. With the exception of Risk and Burn Zone, these narratives contain a lot of humor as well.

My favorite stories in the collection are the funniest. Speed Trap features high-strung deputy Les who takes his job too seriously. Now he’s hopping mad. Pete, who owns a bait-shop, has been using his portable marquee sign to spell out increasingly creative messages that alert oncoming traffic to Les’s speed-trap. Imagine Les’s surprise when he realizes that Pete is doing it to bait him.

Pat Down opens with an impulsive bad-boy running through an alfalfa field with a state cop in pursuit. Ten years ago, the cop was his unrequited love in high school. Now, as he faces a highly embarrassing pat-down, he hopes the cop won’t recognize him.

Burn Zone is a serious drama, which centers on a ménage à trois in its original French meaning. Mostly in m/m fiction, we readers encounter threesomes who come together for short-term sex. These three fire-fighters are in long-term relationship, a household in which together they are stronger than they are apart. This makes for an unusual and intriguing story.

This is a strong collection of short stories (plus the novella Fairground) on an irresistible theme: the unique experience of gay men who serve in law-enforcement and fire-fighting. In such hyper-macho careers, they must cope moment-to-moment with prejudice, risk, misunderstanding, and even temptation. In this collection, you’ll get a fascinating glimpse into what their lives might be like.