The Ghost Had An Early Checkout by Josh Lanyon Book Tour and Giveaway :)
The
Ghost Had an Early Checkout
Sequel
to The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks
by
Josh Lanyon
Genre:
LGBT Mystery
To
live and draw in L.A.
Now
living in Los Angeles with former navy SEAL Nick Reno, artist Perry
Foster comes to the rescue of elderly and eccentric Horace Daly, the
legendary film star of such horror classics as Why Won't You Die, My
Darling?
Horace
owns the famous, but now run-down, Hollywood hotel Angels Rest,
rumored to be haunted. But as far as Perry can tell, the scariest
thing about Angels Rest is the cast of crazy tenants--one of whom
seems determined to bring down the final curtain on Horace--and
anyone else who gets in the way.
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Nick was brooding over this, staring
out the window over the kitchen sink at the smog-dimmed stars, when
he heard the smothered sound of Perry’s cough outside the apartment
door. He stepped out of the kitchen as Perry’s key turned the lock.
Perry opened the door, clearly
surprised to find the lights on. His thin, pointy face lit up as he
spotted Nick. “Hey, you’re home!”
Nick retorted, “One detective per
family is e—” but the rest of it was cut off as Perry launched
himself. Nick’s arms automatically locked around him, and his mouth
came down hard on Perry’s eager one.
What was it about Perry? He was
cute enough, sure. Medium height, lanky, boyish-looking. His hair was
blond and spiky. His eyes were big and brown and as long-lashed as a
cartoon character’s. In this town where two out of every three guys
looked like they were trying out for a role in a major motion
picture, Perry was almost strikingly ordinary. Maybe that was it. The
fact that Perry didn’t look like everyone else. That he didn’t
act like everyone else.
It was funny, though, because Perry was
almost the complete opposite of what Nick had always thought was his
type. Not that he had really thought of himself as having a
type—beyond wanting someone with a penis.
Even after nine months, that
unstinting…what the hell would you call it? Sweetness
sounded too sappy, but there was something so honest, so generous in
Perry’s responses. It made Nick’s heart feel too big for his
chest. Closed his throat so that he could rarely say the things he
wanted to say, things that Perry deserved to hear.
I love you. It scares me how much I
love you.
Instead, he said gruffly, “Where the
hell have you been at this hour?”
Perry didn’t seem to hear the
gruffness. His wide brown eyes smiled guilelessly up into Nick’s.
“I was sketching—”
He had to stop, though, starting to
wheeze. He threw an apologetic look at Nick and dug out his rescue
inhaler. He took a couple of quick puffs while Nick watched,
frowning.
This was not good. He didn’t like the
sudden alarming reappearance of coughing and wheezing. He put a hand
on Perry’s shoulder. Under Nick’s tutelage, Perry had built up
some muscle, but he had not really put on much weight. His shoulders
were still bony, his collarbones sharp.
“You okay?”
Perry put the inhaler away—he didn’t
like using it in front of Nick. As if he thought Nick looked down on
him for it?
He said, “It was so dusty up there!”
“Where? Where’ve you been?” Nick
hoped he didn’t sound as accusatory as he did to his own ears.
“I drove up to Angel’s Rest.”
“Where?”
“That old hotel in the hills.
Remember at Dorian’s exhibition last Saturday? The 1920s hotel in
those photos?”
“The abandoned place on Laurel
Canyon?”
Jesus fucking Christ. He
remembered Perry had seemed fascinated by those photos. But hiking
around those hills on his own? Anything could happen to him, from
being bit by a rattlesnake to running into some crazed homeless
person.
Nick didn’t let any of that show on
his face. That was one thing he had decided early on. He was not
going to undermine Perry’s confidence or self-resilience with his
own fears. Perry was not his child, he was his partner. Physically
frail or not, he was a grown man.
“Right,” Perry said quickly, as
though he sensed everything Nick was determined not to say. “Only
it’s not abandoned. Well, not completely.”
Now, studying him more closely in the
lamplight, Nick noticed Perry’s T-shirt was smeared with dust and
torn at the collar. And—more alarming—his knuckles were scraped
and cut.
Perry said, “Anyway, I’m sorry I’m
late. I didn’t know you’d be home tonight. I bought pork chops
for when you got home.”
“Were you in fight?”
Perry’s eyelashes flicked up
guiltily. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
Nick felt as winded as if Perry had
punched him. Trying to picture him in a fight was… Well,
yes, Nick had been showing him some moves, tried to prepare him a
little in case he ever had to defend himself, but still, Perry in a
fight?
“I’ve got a lot to tell you,”
Perry said. “Should I cook the pork chops?”
“I’ll fix us something to eat. You
talk.”
The
Ghost Wore Yellow Socks
by Josh Lanyon
His
romantic weekend in ruins, shy twenty-something artist Perry Foster
learns that things can always get worse when he returns home from San
Francisco to find a dead body in his bathtub. A dead body in a very
ugly sportscoat -- and matching socks. The dead man is a stranger to
Perry, but that's not much of a comfort; how did a strange dead man
get in a locked flat at the isolated Alton Estate in the wilds of the
"Northeast Kingdom" of Vermont? Perry turns to help from
"tall, dark and hostile" former navy SEAL Nick Reno -- but
is Reno all that he seems?
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Josh
Lanyon is the author of over sixty titles of classic Male/Male
fiction featuring twisty mystery, kickass adventure and unapologetic
man-on-man romance.
Her
work has been translated into eleven languages. The FBI thriller Fair
Game was the first Male/Male title to be published by Harlequin
Mondadori, the largest romance publisher in Italy. Stranger on the
Shore (Harper Collins Italia) was the first M/M title to be published
in print. In 2016 Fatal Shadows placed #5 in Japan's annual Boy Love
novel list (the first and only title by a foreign author to place).
The Adrien English Series was awarded All Time Favorite Male/Male
Series in the 2nd Annual contest held by the 20,000+ Goodreads M/M
Group. Josh is an Eppie Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary
Award finalist (twice for Gay Mystery), and the first ever recipient
of the Goodreads M/M Hall of Fame award.
Josh
is married and lives in Southern California.
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