Review: Ice, Wind and Fire by Mel Keegan

Note: this review has been "rescued" from Rainbow Reviews which, after three marvellous years online, is closing, pending a from-scratch revamp in which the old reviews will be lost.. We want to thank JM Snyder for a fantastic service, and we're so sorry to see the site  go.

Ice, Wind and Fire by Mel Keegan

BOOK BLURB:
It’s hurricane, bushfire, drug smuggling, murder and mayhem when two newspaper men try to take a Caribbean vacation ... and walk right into the storm of the decade ... sizzling gay Romance from the pen of the maestro!

In this first of the Mel Keegan thrillers ~ reissued here with a brilliant new cover to celebrate its twentieth anniversary ~ Greg Farris and Alex Connor, two hot-shot newsmen from Perspective magazine head out to Jamaica on a vacation which soon goes askew. Scuba diving right after a Caribbean storm, they discover the wreck of a light plane ... and in hours the lid is off Pandora’s box. Their holiday becomes a fight to survive in the teeth of smugglers, slave traders, murderers ~ and the worst the elements can throw at them.

BOOK REVIEW:
I loved "Ice, Wind, and Fire."

The book is set in the late 1980s, as Greg Farris and Alex Connor, reporter and photographer respectively for a hard-hitting news magazine run into a nasty storm. Committed lovers in a time when gay couples were less accepted than they are today, the two men have carefully scheduled a relaxing vacation in Jamaica, but end up on the job and on the run.

I actually didn't realize at first that this book was a re-issue (it was new to me!), but it was actually written more or less contemporaneously with the historical events depicted, and that, combined with Mel Keegan's crisp, concise writing style gives this novel a sense of believable realism that makes it a page-turner. Greg and Alex are carefully characterized and their relationship is edgily erotic. Keegan has a way with detail that keeps the reader's attention focused on the twisty plot.

If you like a well-written book with action and adventure (and sexy interludes!), you'll love "Ice, Wind, and Fire."