COASTAL VIEWS TO DIE FOR

A road trip turns deadly for a neurodivergent travel writer.

Now that Oliver Popp has just about recovered from his first assignment, covering a tourist renaissance in the nation’s capital—seen in How To Have a Killer Time in D.C. (2025)—his San Francisco–based editor sends him up the 101 for a piece on “find[ing] romance on the Oregon Coast.” He’s suspicious of her motives, because she’s assigned Ricky Warner, the sexy gay photographer he connected with in D.C., to be his cameraman. Oliver found his previous encounter with Ricky “stressful and chaotic and strange—all words [his] Autistic soul liked to avoid as much as possible,” but he can’t help reminding himself how attractive he finds Ricky. Author Lumley, who’s on the autism spectrum himself, poignantly describes Oliver’s efforts to understand the complexities of romance, as the journalist’s desire to faithfully adhere to his assignment clashes with the need to figure out what Ricky means to him. Oliver’s struggles are complicated still further when, at the first B&B he’s assigned to review, he finds himself in the middle of the innkeeper’s family gathering. Innkeeper Mary Alice Thatcher’s assurance that the Roses are a fun bunch is a bit undermined when Richard Rose’s dead body turns up in Ricky and Oliver’s hot tub. Negotiating the emotions that attend a death in an already fractious family is a lot for Oliver, but he rises to the challenge.

Romance, murder, and autism prove to be enjoyable bedfellows.