THE FISHER BOY

Disruptions among the Provincetown gay crowd.

Wealthy, philanthropic Arthur's beautiful “treasure,” the mysterious Edward, scampers away the morning the slashed body of Ian Drummond is found on a remote breakwater. He reappears helping out the Christian Soldiers, a homophobic cadre bent on cleansing Provincetown. The mercurial Edward then takes off to join a cult that follows the dictates of “the Golden One.” While tracking down Edward might better be left to the police, aspiring stand-up comic Mark, like Arthur and Ian an alumnus of the now defunct St. Harold's, tackles the case, mainly because he had a rowdy brawl with Ian recently and their reconciliation involved a sexual quickie just before he died. Then begins a rash of violent adventures, including a run-in with castrati, an attempted murder by steam bath, the kidnapping of young Chloe, the daughter of a local trinket merchant, a bleary confession of his parentage from Mark's mother, and much, much more.

A first-rate insider's tour of Provincetown with tender gay love scenes and B&B vignettes. But the overstuffed plot could have used major paring, and the first-time novelist needs to learn to ration his similes.