Communication is key

 Ok, so several LGBTQ+ book groups I read have suggested P. J. Vernon's Bath Haus in breathless terms as a must read. While LGBTQ+ mysteries have long been a niche subgenre only overshadowed by Romance (and now, Urban Romance, usually written by female authors whith a mostly female and gay audience in mind), it's not often a Thriller with Gay people comes out, unless the gay folks are the villains. Which is why I was curious to read this, since the author bio identifies as male and gay. So, anyway, before we start diving into this, let me say two things. One, I was disappointed that a prediction I made after reading the description on the book jacket was part of one of the major reveals. Two, I would suggest that before one deep dives into this book, one should read The Pigman by Paul Zindel, or at least read this exerpt from it. Because honestly, I spent much of the book trying to place the players in roles of the Assassin's Riddle. 

Anyway, we're mainly focused on Oliver, a recovering junkie from small town Indiana, who's currently living with Nathan, a Trauma surgeon at Walter Reed in DC. Nathan's mother is presented as akin to say, the Evil Queen from Snow White, completely disapproving of her son dating such scum. Indeed, part way through the book, she deeds the house they live in to Nathan, knowing that he can't afford the taxes on it, so it's pretty much an eviction. Then we have Tom, one of Nathan's close friends who works for a homophobic midwestern senator. And we have Hector, Oliver's ex from Indiana who is kind of a bad memory for half the book before showing up in DC. And of course, there's the narrative hook and Aryan sex god, Kristian, who tries to strangle Oliver at the Haus Bath House in his private room at the end of the first chapter. 

So, anyway, after Oliver manages to get away and get out, we start getting better details of his life, as well as some of Nathan's perspectives on things. Oliver and Nathan have been together for a while, and are in a supposedly mutually exclusive relationship. Oliver, however, does have a few hook up apps on his phone, although he generally uses them for fantasy fodder. While Nathan is out of town for a conference, Oliver decides what he doesn't know can't hurt him and decided to go see how the other half lives. Which leads us to Kristian and the asphyxiation. (Note, both physical and emotional strangulation play a large part in the book's themes.)

Oliver now has hand shaped bruises on his throat. He tells Nathan on FaceTime he got mugged. Oliver goes to the cops and tells the detective the whole truth, counting on her discretion. However, when Nathan gets home, he drags Oliver to the police, and forced Oliver to file a false report. 

Things keep happening, like Kristian getting hired by Nathan's contractor. We find out Nathan knows about Oliver's MeatLocker account, and assumes Oliver has been hooking up all the time. This gets more complicated by Tom sending naked pics to Oliver. We also find out about a budgeting app Nathan has that sets off alerts whenever Oliver uses a credit card. 

At the very end, the full reveal of everything everyone in here has done to each other is less a surprise, and more just unveiling the entire picture of what happens when people just don't communicate with other people. 

Seriously. Just about everything that happens could have been avoided had Nathan and Oliver sat down and talked honestly, forgetting both their psychological issues and dependencies on each other. I mean, I understand why both of them were acting the way they did, but somewhere, you really just have to say "I love you, but something isn't working. How do we fix this?"

In the end, I enjoyed the read, even if it wasn't quite the potboiler it was sold to me as, even if I did have the urge to smack sense into every character in it by the final page.