2016 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Drama Muscle by Joe Cosentino (048-03-17-2016)

This book is a comic romp that simultaneously celebrates and lampoons a mash-up of genres: the bloodless murders (in this case six) of Agatha Christie and her ilk, the screwball movie mysteries of Nick and Norah Charles (it's Nick and Noah here), and the simile-rich voice-overs of film noir-- all updated for a gay context. Everything is drawn in broad strokes and exaggerated. With such an extensive dramatis personae, the author gives each bodybuilder character hilarious traits that helps the reader sort out who's who (and who's being killed next). It's certainly not subtle, but it's effective. I was especially taken by the twins who could read each other's thoughts, resulting in some hilarious one-sided dialogue.The setting (the New England college of Treemeadow, named after its spindly gay founders, Tree and Meadow) is a hilarious one-note of constantly shifting autumn colors. Repetition is effectively comic, as in the tongue-twisters ("Try saying that three times fast."). As for the writing, it, too, is over the top. Sam Spade-like similes abound: "[He] jumped up like a malaria victim's temperature"; "slower than a priest in altar boys' dressing room"; and so on. The character's name are similarly de trop: to name only two, Nicky Abbondanza (the narrator who boasts of an improbably-sized appendage) and Mickey Minor (the diminutive bodybuilder). Comic writing is difficult, and this author has succeeded on his own terms.