MURDER AT THE JACK OFF CLUB
by Johnny Townsend
A gay man investigates murders at group masturbation parties in Townsend’s salacious mystery.
Bruce Chealander, a 60-something gay Seattle man, endures a dead-end job and a sexless relationship with his husband, Tommy; his main recreation is attending “Jack Off Buddies” gatherings in which men sexually stimulate themselves and each other. But the fun stops when Bruce discovers the stabbed and suffocated corpse of Salvador Castro, another partier, in the locker room. Studly Seattle police detective Demir Altan interviews witnesses—many of them naked—but turns up few leads, so Bruce and his occasional lover, Chris, a partier and aspiring PI, start an amateur investigation of suspicious Buddies. They include Howard, from whom Salvador stole some money; Andrew, an ex-lover on whom Salvador took out a life insurance policy; and Stu, whose penis Salvador derided. The plot thickens when an acquaintance of Bruce turns up strangled to death at the next party, placing Bruce under suspicion, and the police find a map of the club on Tommy’s computer, making him a suspect. On the bright side, Bruce’s love life revives: He hooks up with new men, makes out with Demir in a park, and resumes sex with Tommy. The action climaxes when Bruce, Tommy, and Demir attend a third party to see if the killer will strike again. Townsend serves up a wan mystery narrative, shoehorning in the meager sleuthing around graphic sex scenes, and attentive readers will not be surprised when the perp abruptly announces himself. There’s also much digressive soapboxing against the Trump Administration. But Townsend’s prose is punchy and evocative, and his depictions of the characters’ relationships and heartaches are frank and nuanced. (“Men don’t look at me,” observes a dejected, 300-pound man named Marin. “If our eyes meet, they’re convinced I want them. That I think we’ve signed a contract obligating them to touch me….And they’d rather die than touch me.”) The result is a sometimes cheesy but ultimately affecting saga of love and death.
A threadbare suspense plot redeemed by supple writing and a rich portrait of gay life.