Total Meltdown by Raymond Gaynor & William Maltese
There was a time, more or less between the ‘80s and ‘90s when the political thriller was an huge hit, and I liked it, but truth be told, they were “heavy” books: thousand and thousands of pages and seldom an author was so good to be able to not be at least a little boring in all those pages. I think Gaynor and Maltese together found a good way to not fall in the same mistake, and they indeed wrote a political thriller packed of characters, but it’s all condensed 160 pages, so that, in the end, you don’t have time to be bored. And another thing I noticed, and liked, was that the novel is indeed “packed”, but of characters and not so much of crush-bum-bam actions: it’s more a play of man to man, than man to machine, and in every meaning of the two words together, since there is also a lot of man to man action of the sex type.
Basically the story evolves around two men, Tripler and Clarke (surname as in the best political thriller tradition), couple in life and work. They are already together, and they already click in all the right ways, so the story is not about how they fell in love, but it’s about them and the outside world. Their best friend from College, Mathias “Matty” Jackson, is the new President of the United States, and he is having big trouble; Tripler and Clarke come to help, like cavalry in a Western novel, and with them there is also Philippe Moreau, a Canadian diplomat and Tripler’s connection. Matty and Philippe are not gay, Matty is married, and basically happy, with a little Asian jewel, and Philippe is wooing another Canadian politic, Amelie. This allows the novel to not be strictly gay, but indeed, Tripler and Clarke are the most interesting characters, and so they steal the scene to all the other. Aside from them, there are a lot of other more or less important supporting characters, some of them playing along the line of the evil villain, like the South American tyrant, and some other being a bit of a surprise, like the South Arabian king.
In the midst of an international chaos, there is not so much time for love, but Tripler and Clarke are able to find it, and even when they are not together, it’s really nice and tender to see how the apparently stronger of the two, Tripler, is indeed the one who suffers much the distance. When they are together, Tripler is always near Clarke, he needs the physical connection, and not only in a sexual way.
I think Total Meltdown will surprise a lot the romance reader who will be willing to give it a try, and I can’t talk for the political-thriller fans, I’m not really among them, but I think that also on that side, there is a lot of meat for them.
Amazon: Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure
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