Thin as Smoke

Simon and Michael are spectacular once again. I love the fact that this installment is centered around their one year "anniversary". We get to see how each of them see that fateful day and when you throw in their new case and the addition of Michael's old colleague, you have yourself a perfect addition to the Gaslight Mysteries.

Speaking of Michael's old colleague, Sam Hammett, it's a special treat for me. Not only does Sam bring a new element to the story, an inkling of Michael's history and Simon dealing with the jealousy that Sam's arrival has brought out, but for me it adds a bit of fangirl moments. Sam Hammett, or as most people know him, Dashiell Hammett, is the creator of my most favorite mystery solving couple, Nick and Nora Charles and The Thin Man. Neither The Thin Man nor Hammett's writing skills have any bearing on this story but just the addition of his character into the mix had me giddy going in and once I finished Thin as Smoke, I was just as giddy. Miss O'Quinn weaves Hammett into the world that Simon and Michael live in with creativity and nearly as much charm as Michael used to originally worm his way into Simon's life back in Heart to Hart.

Now for the mystery itself. Perfect for the duo, or should I say trio in this case. I don't think that the case is as big a part of this story as the cases in the first three of the series. However, I do think that how the characters deal with the case and each other is more at the center of Thin as Smoke, which is still part of the mystery so perhaps it's just from a different angle. However you look at the ins and outs of the case, this is a great addition the series and a must read, especially if you like historical settings.

She does it every time. When I pick up a book by Erin O’Quinn, I know I’m going to enjoy it. That’s a foregone conclusion. With her Gaslight Mysteries series, it’s not simply enjoyment; it’s magic. One moment I’m sitting in my familiar surroundings opening a book and before I’ve finished the first paragraph, space and time have contracted and I’m in Dun Linden, Ireland, in the early 1920’s.

Thin As Smoke is every bit as magical as the previous three books in the series. O’Quinn delivers both a mystery taut with danger and a love story, just as taut and just as dangerous. In many ways, this is the best of them, and I have loved each one.

Simon Hart, reticent and reluctant to embrace his own sexuality, and boisterous, brash Michael McCree are partners in their firm of private investigators, and often as agents in Michael’s own covert activities. They are also sometime partners in the bedroom, though not nearly often enough to suit Michael. Each is trapped inside the snare of his emotions, straining to find a means of escape, not from each other, but toward each other.

Into this already tense situation comes a presence from Michael’s past, a former partner, one who holds a part of Michael close to his own tubercular chest, one who goes by the familiar name of Dashiell Hammett. Hammett and a private client are each in need of Michael, in one case, and Simon in the other. Rather than their accustomed work together, they must work separately to solve these cases. Separately, but not alone. The man Hammett is there, thin as smoke and yet hard as flint between them.

There is more than one way to step into danger; there is more than one way to damage a relationship, perhaps beyond repair. Though he stands between them, Hammett may hold the key to uniting Michael and Simon in deeper ways than ever before.

It’s a brave author who pulls a flesh-and-blood character into a work of fiction. Rarely have I seen such skillful weaving-in as O’Quinn does in Thin As Smoke. Very highly recommended.

The much-awaited fourth...book in The Gaslight Series brings us to what is supposed to be the reckoning of the love story of Boston-born Michael McCree and pan-European Simon Hart, private investigators in 1920s Ireland: Michael so head over heels in love with Simon at first blush and Simon denying that he is gay even while fighting his carnal and emotional tangle with Michael.

And then she throws in the unlikely appearance of one Samuel Dashiell Hammett (yes, THAT Dashiell Hammett) and dares us to believe the character and story are both viable and worthy of trust. And she delivers on all scores in another romantic, somewhat violent, adventure that like her other works is held together by the richness of her writing and the strength of her characters and storytelling. (How she manages to slip in the title of the book as a descriptive phrase in a conversation that is crucial to the romance is brilliant. Took my breath away!)

For those familiar with the series, please understand that for the most part this is Simon's story, and even at the end his persona and his way of living will bring a pause to your breathing, if not a tingle to your heart. I must say that Erin O'Quinn lifted my spirits here, but also threw me completely off in one respect: If this is the last in the series, what are you planning next? Hopefully she might spin a tale of a character in all these books who seems to be a logical segue to another series in which both Michael and Simon could appear--hopefully hand-in-hand as well as Heart-to-Hart.