SORRY NOW?

Zubro, author of two earnest mysteries featuring a gay schoolteacher sleuth (The Only Good Priest, Why Isn't Becky Twitchell Dead?), now introduces an earnest, gay widower-cop, Paul Turner of the Chicago PD, assigned to investigate the murder of right-wing politico Reverend Mucklewrath's daughter. In the course of his investigation, Paul meets Rusty, the whore-hustler who swears that the Reverend's son, Donald, is gay; handsome, noble Dr. George Manfred, whom everyone wants to ``marry'' off to Paul; and several old derelicts, including HIV-infected Wilmer, who has a clue to the murderer but is killed before he can reveal it. The case is wrapped up, but not before the homophobic killer kidnaps Paul's teenaged son Brian, makes a few filthy remarks about Paul, and so forth. A calculated, middle-class view of a homosexual cop leading a decent life with his two sons—one a heterosexual (probably) teen, and the other a spina bifuda child. All in all, sort of dull, even with murder around the edges.