Becoming Ted

British journalist Cain (The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle) serves up a breezy second-act story that traces a 40-something gay man's unlikely journey to drag stardom. After nearly 20 years spent with the snobbish Giles in the quaint English town of St. Luke's-on-Sea, Ted Ainsworth discovers one morning that his husband has been cheating on him. They break up in a flash, and Ted is left reeling--he dodges messages from his best friend Denise and sulks through shifts at one of his family's ice cream parlors. When he regains his footing, he decides to pursue his long-dormant dream of becoming a drag queen. It's a big leap from his previous life (Giles discouraged him from dancing or dressing up), but with Denise's help, Ted constructs the leggy, foul-mouthed alter-ego Gail Force. Meanwhile, he frets about his disinterest in running the family business, and is further troubled by a series of threatening anonymous letters. After he falls for secretly gay Polish construction worker Oskar, Ted wonders if his new flame will support his drag ambitions. There's too much padding--Ted's angst about his lifelong distaste for ice cream is especially overplayed--but Cain constructs a soothing if familiar tale of self-empowerment. This sticky-sweet confection goes down smooth enough. Agent: Sophie Lambert, C&W. (June)

In a small English coastal town, a gay man has a midlife renaissance. When his husband of almost 20 years leaves him for another man, Ted Ainsworth feels bereft. Giles was the sun around which he orbited. The genuine support of Ted's well-meaning parents is undercut by their desire for him to take over the family ice cream business, which is foundering in the wake of Covid-19. One of Ted's closely held secrets is that he doesn't even like ice cream. Another is his love of performing and all things camp, which Giles routinely belittled. When Ted's mom signs him up for a dance class at the community center, this love is reawakened, and with the encouragement of his best friend, Denise (a makeup artist), he decides to try something he's always wanted to do: drag. Some research, some shopping, and some practice walking in heels, and soon Gail Force is born. But Ted is still cautious. He's terrified to tell his parents, fearing that acceptance of his homosexuality is the maximum they can offer, and feeling torn between his duty to the family business and an absolute lack of interest in it. Also, he has a new beau, Oskar Kozlowski, who is sweet but traumatized by growing up in Poland, where he could not be out. If that wasn't enough to balance, Ted begins receiving mysterious letters that claim to know unsavory details about his father, a subplot that comes out of left field. Some chapters are from Oskar's or Denise's perspective but, no matter the character, the third-person writing is sprinkled with first-person thoughts, which feel a bit on the nose. A warning, as well, that fatphobia runs unchecked through the book. Outside of that, Ted is a sympathetic character who emerges into his new life taking two steps forward and one step back. Sweet, detailed, and heartwarming. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.