Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lumley debuts with a sure-footed romantic mystery featuring a 24-year-old gay, autistic travel writer. Oliver Popp's tightly organized life gets upended when his editors at Offbeat Traveler assign his first feature, which requires that he travel from his home in Northern California to Washington, D.C., to report on tourism trends. He's met at the airport by handsome, impulsive photographer Ricky Warner, who will shoot the story. Sparks immediately fly between the two, despite their opposing temperaments. While reporting, Oliver runs into his high school friend Elise, an MIT graduate who now works for billionaire tycoon Kelsey King's Moonshot Motors. A series of high-profile accidents involving Moonshot's cars have taken Elise to Washington to testify in front of a House committee on safety regulations. When Elise is killed before her day at the Capitol, Ricky convinces a reluctant Oliver to put their Offbeat Traveler assignment on the back burner and investigate. Lumley surrounds his gumshoes with a colorful cast of plausible suspects, but the real draw is the sweet and clumsy chemistry between Oliver and Ricky. Cozy fans will hope this heralds the start of a globe-trotting new series. Agent: Kimberly Fernando, Olswanger Literary. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fledgling travel writer makes a splash in his first out-of-town assignment. Oliver Popp, a 24-year-old gay man with autism, has done so well writing short front-of-book pieces for the San Francisco--basedOffbeat Traveler that his managing editor, Drea Hollingsworth, sends him to the nation's capital to do a piece on the city's attempts to revive its flagging tourist industry. After just under a year on the job, he worries whether he's ready for such a big assignment. When he arrives in D.C., still reeling with anxiety over being away from his mother's cozy home in Oakland, he's further discombobulated by meeting his photographer, Ricky Warner, a sexy guy who seems to have slept with half the men in D.C. Ricky urges Ollie to go further out of his comfort zone by ditching his itinerary. Instead of taking the Metro to a carefully curated list of tourist destinations, they go roaring around town in Ricky's Corvair, inevitably getting into trouble. At a reception sponsored by Moonshot Motors, the pair take a spin in a self-driving car that hits and kills Elise Perkins, a software engineer Ollie happened to know from high school. Ricky convinces Ollie that, as journalists, they have a duty to investigate Elise's death, and pretty soon, they're breaking into hotel rooms in search of clues. That search vies touchingly with Ollie's inner search into his complicated feelings toward Ricky in Lumley's series debut. The biggest mystery is why Ricky, who's attractive enough to get the attention of pretty much any guy he wants, should pursue shy, awkward Ollie. The heart wants what it wants. Let's hope Lumley offers a follow-up once his heroes' hearts decide. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
