How to Have a Killer Time in DC
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A young, gay, autistic travel writer takes a head-spinning detour when murder and romance unbalance his well-planned life and career in this fun, quirky debut mystery . . .
For twenty-four-year-old Oliver Popp, autism is just another fact of life. As long as Oliver sticks to a comfortable itinerary planned well in advance, he gets by just fine as a staff writer for Offbeat Traveler magazine. But a curveball drops into Oliver’s budding career when his first feature assignment takes him to Washington, DC, to chronicle the latest tourism trends.
His freelance project photographer is Ricky Warner, a gregarious and impulsively adorable shot of adrenaline. If the flirty gay photographer isn’t enough to unbalance shy Oliver at the get-go, there’s also an unsettling chance encounter with old acquaintance, Elise Perkins, and a congressional hearing that’s shaking up both the capitol and an entrepreneurial billionaire. The unexpected distractions soon collide—quite literally—when Elise is struck dead by a speeding car. Funny how she didn’t move and didn’t scream. She just stared it down like she knew it was coming. Forget the National Mall and Mt. Vernon Square. Oliver and Ricky are game for something much more interesting: solving a mystery and a murder.
With their focus shifted and a deadline coming, they only have a few days to solve the crime. For Oliver, it’s a weeks of firsts: first crush, first time without a schedule, first time playing amateur sleuth, and first time getting wrestled out of his comfort zone. But with a loosey-goosey new partner like Ricky, that might not be such a bad thing at all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
