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The Dream Ender
The eleventh book in the Dick Hardesty Mystery series

by Dorien Grey



      Dorien Grey's eleventh installment in his Dick Hardesty Mystery series, The Dream Ender, has a new publisher. Launching Zumaya's Boundless imprint, which handles gay / lesbian / bi characters, The Dream Ender has private investigator, Dick Hardesty, in the middle of not one, but two, murders within the gay community. The first victim, a regular at a free-wheeling leather bar, has been rumored to be spreading AIDS among the bar's customers. Set at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in a large metropolitan area that isn't identified, the murder soon brings many more suspects than usual under Hardesty's scrutiny.

The mystery is straight out of any PI tale and is handled well. But it is Grey's portrayal of Hardesty's family life and how he and his friends support a comrade newly diagnosed with AIDS that sets this book and this series above others. Grey offers a warm look into the dynamics between Hardesty and his partner Jonathan, who are raising Jonathan's five-year-old nephew. This couple has all of the fears and joys all parents have, while dealing with personal health scares and turmoil within their community. Grey and the publishers of Zumaya Books are to be commended for bringing that normal part of a gay couple's life to a broader audience through the Zumaya Boundless imprint.

Grey also was able to paint a portrait of the uncertainty and fear in the era when AIDS first was discovered and before any reliable AIDS test was developed. In the forward to this story, Dick Hardesty writes: "And when AIDS appeared in the mid-1970s, the Reaper strode through the gay community, ending the lives and dreams of tens of thousands of gay men and sending waves of fear and helplessness through us all." From this, he derived his title, The Dream Ender. Hardesty (or rather Grey) is in error about the timeline, however. AIDS first appeared in the US in 1978, but wasn't identified as AIDS until 1982, a year after over 200 gay men died of pneumonia and Kaposi Sarcoma across the country. The first test for AIDS was developed in 1985. Therefore, this story would have taken place in the mid-1980s, not 1970s.

Another issue that Grey brings up in The Dream Ender is whether it is a criminal act to willingly spread AIDS. Today, several states have laws which punish those who knowingly spread the disease.

Grey recently turned his writing attention to Calico, an historical Western romance/suspense with gay characters, and a possible new mystery series.

The Book

Zumaya Boundless
July 2007
Trade paperback
1934135623 / 978-1934135624
Fiction, mystery
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

Janie Franz
Reviewed 2007
NOTE: Reviewer Janie Franz is the author of Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid!and co-author of The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book and The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book. Coming Soon: The Ultimate Wedding Workbook.
© 2007 MyShelf.com