Double Bound
by Nick Nolan
Copyright © 2010
AmazonEncore
ISBN 9780982555026
$14.95 Paperback
352 Pages
$7.99 Kindle E-dition
Originally published with BookSurge in 2008, Nick Nolan’s Double Bound was just republished as part of the AmazonEncore program. AE is where Amazon.com recognizes books that may have been overlooked but may have great potential, and then partner with the authors to re-release them and help market them better to readers. It obviously is working, or at least for Nick Nolan, because I would probably not have read his book otherwise. Double Bound is a sequel to his first book, Strings Attached, which was republished with AmazonEncore earlier this year.
As the book opens we meet Arthur, a young homosexual man who had a high school romance with another “questioning young man” named Jonathan, who ended up breaking his heart. Lacking the support of his family, Arthur considers killing himself, but joins the armed services instead. Arthur’s second romance comes to an abrupt ending because of the Twin Towers tragedy, while Arthur is serving his country as a strong-willed marine. After being discharged, his skills land him a career with the FBI, but he opts for a security guard position with a wealthy family, who also happens to be the family of his first love, Jonathan, who had gone on to live a “straight” life and is now deceased.
Jonathan’s son, Jeremy, lives with his wealthy aunt, Katharine, who sends Jeremy to survey an island resort off the coast of Brazil that she’s invested in. Accompanying him is Carlo, his lover, and Arthur as bodyguard, who has suddenly found himself attracted to Jeremy despite him being half Arthur’s age. The three of them quickly become wrapped up in a kidnapping plot against Jeremy set into motion by the island owner, Fabiano, who is also their biggest Brazilian investor. Fabiano woos his guests with the resort’s luxuries, but has other plans in mind which could ultimately lead to death. Along the way, Carlo reconnects with an estranged cousin who is living in a Brazilian slum, and who helps reveal the dirty truth about Fabiano; and Jeremy and Arthur’s true feelings about each other are brought to light.
I’ve never come across a good “gay” mystery or thriller that I could connect with in some way without stereotypical characters or predictable plot lines getting in the way. I fully admit that I expected Nolan’s book to fall into that category after I was about fifty pages in, but as I continued to read I found myself not being able to put the book down because I was eager to see what direction it was taking. Nolan’s characters are definitely multi-layered and complex, which made them feel believable to me. He’s breathed an array of real life emotions, heart ache, and strength into each of them, particularly Arthur. The author also builds his plot off heavy use of the Portuguese language (there’s a pages of translations in the back), and the book is rich in Brazilian culture and history, including an ancient blood letting ceremony which was just downright scary. Feeding off of these traits definitely gives the book a new and lively feel for the genre, and puts the characters in “real” and believable situations.
As for the book itself, I like the fun cartoon cover. AmazonEncore obviously gave it a makeover, and used the same type of artwork on Nolan’s first book. In the Author’s Notes, Nolan explains that he used the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale as a metaphor for the story, just as he used Pinocchio in Strings Attached. I didn’t really get a sense of this, and it probably never would have come across to me had he not explained it, but I’m glad he did because otherwise the beanstalk on the cover would not have made any sense to me. Though not obvious, as an author I certainly appreciate such nuances that authors write into their stories, whether it be blatantly obvious or hidden just for personal reasons. I’ve definitely done it myself.
At over 300 pages of story, the fifty-two chapters were often just a few pages long which I think is an important quality for “mystery-type” books. Or at least it definitely helps to keep the story moving along. The interior is flawless, and I only noticed one typo, but I was reading an advanced readers copy so we probably can’t even count that. All in all, I’d say AmazonEncore produces nice work and I’m glad to see they’ve included gay fiction in their mix , but this is the first book I’ve read from them. And it has certainly helped Nick Nolan gain exposure. Strings Attached already has 79 reviews and is ranked at 4 stars; Double Bound has 28 reviews and is also ranked at 4 stars. I much deserved 4 stars I might add.
Check back tomorrow for my interview with Nick himself.
