I wandered over to this series from the Dave Brandstetter series by [a:Joseph Hansen|7737|Joseph Hansen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1369326227p2/7737.jpg]. So, my expectations were quite high, and maybe that's why I didn't cotton on to the MC as I did with the Brandstetter series.

Benjamin is an alcoholic who drinks white wine because he hates it, thinking it will keep him from going off on a bender. He fell apart after the death of his boyfriend, and you know there is more to that story than what he is telling. There is also a hardness to him that was a little difficult for me to take.

Spoiler

Especially when it manifested in his somewhat forceful intercourse with a guy

. Finding out about his childhood explained it, but didn't necessarily excuse it for me. But, he does have an epiphany at the end of the book, so I do plan to read the next one, hoping that more redeeming qualities will shine.

Tried the sample on Kindle first and liked the book enough at that point to buy it. I was looking for another series after finishing Vermilion but this will not be it.
I enjoyed the multiculturalism of the cast of characters but felt it was pushed a little too far when the guy in the wheelchair showed up with his Chinese boyfriend. I liked that the hero was flawed, I thought it was a great device that he had won the Pulitzer and given it back for lying. Sometimes people do bad things or silly things and they can't always be explained. Especially at the beginning Justice doesn't attempt to explain himself and I was hoping it wouldn't all work out to some pat solution where it was all justifiable, but of course it did.
The killer was unexpected but I didn't really buy it. The original police suspect, what kind of gang drive by shooter gets out to check on his victim after pulling the trigger? That didn't really make sense either. So much was made of the blood being on his clothes but he was found by police crouched over the body ten minutes after shots were fired, of course there was blood on his clothes.
The book was enough to carry me to the end but not on a level that I would need to continue so my search for a new series continues.

I was super excited to find a gay mystery series that made it mainstream in the 90's, and rather surprised that this slipped my radar.

About halfway through the book, I remembered that I don't actually like procedural mysteries, and I really don't like "Hollywood Gay". Oops.

This book is very much a product of its times and I'm afraid doesn't hold up well. It deserves credit for breaking mainstream pre-Queer as Folk, but if you've seen Queer as Folk, you know what to expect here. Everyone's a piece of meat, everybody is on drugs and promiscuous. We just have the added mystery of a murder here.

There's certainly an audience for this sort of story. Unfortunately, it's not me.

I liked this book, and I kept wondering exactly why I did. I guessed who was the killer from the beginning, although there certainly were various worthy red-herrings and my sticking to my suspect has more to do with a gut instinct than with anything else.

I didn't really like Ben, although I pitied him but, as the story advanced and I got to know more of his background, I at least understood him. I still find abhorrent his last night with Jin. Nor booze not Jin's games justify what he did.

But I enjoyed the story. I liked to see the investigation done from a journalist's POV, and I like stories with characters that are complex and not totally black or white. I like characters that struggle to be better, and Ben seems to be heading to be one of them.

So I'll be reading more of this series, now that I finally managed to sit and read this one *laughs*

Good book. Maybe look for this series?

This is a completely other universe than Stevenson's. Where Stevenson is witty, fun and smart aleck, Wilson is angsty, dark and cynic. Benjamin Simple is a reporter with a tainted past, who's lost his lover and his reputation. Prone to alcohol, dark mood, melancholy, Simple is brought back into the news world by his ex-boss to help a rookie reporter out. This is the opening book of the Benjamin Simple series set in Los Angeles, West Hollywood. It's dark, it's raw, it's angsty. It's an interesting reading experience and I found myself turning the pages and going one more chapter. It was a nice surprise.

I liked this book, and I kept wondering exactly why I did. I guessed who was the killer from the beginning, although there certainly were various worthy red-herrings and my sticking to my suspect has more to do with a gut instinct than with anything else.

I didn't really like Ben, although I pitied him but, as the story advanced and I got to know more of his background, I at least understood him. I still find abhorrent his last night with Jin. Nor booze not Jin's games justify what he did.

But I enjoyed the story. I liked to see the investigation done from a journalist's POV, and I like stories with characters that are complex and not totally black or white. I like characters that struggle to be better, and Ben seems to be heading to be one of them.

So I'll be reading more of this series, now that I finally managed to sit and read this one *laughs*

Real Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Following the death of his lover and a scandal involving his Pulitzer Prize-winning article, crime reporter Benjamin Justice has fallen into a hazy, alcoholic life, hiding out in the West Hollywood neighborhood known as the Norma Triangle. He is called back to the world of the living by an unexpected, and unwelcome, visit from Harry Brofsky, his former boss. Brofsky wants Ben to do some background work (strictly off the record) with another reporter on the investigation of a seemingly motiveless killing outside a local gay bar. The investigation throws Justice back into the life of gay bars, spurned lovers, dysfunctional families, and tawdry secrets--all the things he had been trying to escape. And it leads, ultimately, to the reexamination of his own dark past, and his own crimes of passion. Simple Justice is a subtly plotted mystery that takes a piercing look at not only violent crime but also violations of the heart and soul in the sometimes glamorous, more often dark and gritty gay world of West Hollywood.

My Review: Simple? Simplistic. Subtle? Clichéd. Voices are muffled as if through handkerchiefs. (Seriously...try that sometime...all you are is inaudible.) Gunshots? Are you sure it wasn't a car backfiring? (In the past 20 years, the ubiquity of fuel injection has made this once-frequent occurrence unusual enough to be more noteworthy than a mere gunshot.) The large, muscular African-American bouncer at a gay bar says the victim was “all by hisself.”

Nauseous.

The murderer, when revealed, is so boringly predictable that, on the character's first appearance, I noted “killer” on the page. (Since erased. Hey, quit frowning, some people dog-ear.) The red herrings were days old, and smelt up the place. (Punishment will continue until praise is heaped upon me.)

So why did I finish it? It's the sixteen-year-old first book in a series that has eight books. First books are seldom all that wonderful, and a series that's lasted eight has something. Maybe I won't like that something, but I'll try one more to see. It only took about three hours to read this one, so it's not like I'm making a major time commitment. Plus the Pearl Rule looms behind each page-flip, dangling its gorgeously made invitation to say “sayonara” and sail away for better-written shores.