Title: Frat house Troopers (Brandt and Donnelly Caper: Case File One)
Author Name: Xavier Mayne
Publication Date & Length: December 19th, 2012 – 260 pages
State trooper Brandt’s new assignment to infiltrate a sex-cam operation puts him in a very uncomfortable position, especially since he’ll have to perform naked on camera for his audition. Fortunately his partner and best friend, Donnelly, has his back—whether that means helping Brandt shop gay boutiques for sexy underwear or offering Jäger and encouragement while he researches porn.
Despite his mortification, Brandt gives the audition his best “shot”—and becomes an overnight sensation. But to meet the man behind the operation, he’ll have to give a repeat performance, this time live on webcam opposite the highest bidder. Donnelly makes sure to win that auction for his partner’s sake, but their plan has a flaw: faking it is not an option.
In the aftermath, Brandt is a humiliated mess trying desperately to come to terms with what he’s had to do for the job and his own mixed feelings. But Donnelly has been on a journey of discovery of his own. Suddenly everything the two men thought they knew about themselves and each other gets turned inside out. Meanwhile, they still have a case to solve… but it may not be the case they thought it was.
From locker rooms to Greek villas to porn sets, Mayne seems to delight in crafting titillating settings for his stories. I’m pretty sure it must be a drinking game he plays with his friends: who can list their top five places to find naked young men?
This time the setting is a web-cam porn set designed to look like a college frat house. Where everyone walks around naked. Oh – and to make it even sexier, one of the housemates is an undercover officer who also gets to be naked. Fantastic.
What I love about this series is the way Mayne spins the most emotionally raw love stories in absurdly sordid environs. Instead of mindless literary soft-porn, Mayne offers his reader poignant lessons in the fluid nature of sexual identity and the beauty of love between best friends.
Mayne always delivers his lessons with a wink, a nudge and a wicked sense of humour. The Brandt and Donnelly books are playful, silly, well observed and beautifully written. Brandt and Donnelly themselves are two of my all-time favourite m/m pairings.
While you can read these books out of sequence, this is the first and the best place to start. You will understand Brandt and Donnelly best if you start here, and you’ll also meet stalwarts like Bryce and Nestor for the first time.
I have received other books by this author in exchange for honest reviews for Inked Rainbow Reviews, but I purchased this book myself.
~Sarah
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