*~~*ARC kindly provided from the publisher/author to me for an honest review *~~*

Full review to come

4 stars

In this beautiful LGBT historical mystery set in 1934 Connecticut, aspiring pulp writer Alex Dawson just needs to catch a break: at publication, at steady employment, at a relationship whose very nature is soundly condemned by law, church, and custom. Alex is a sweetheart of a protagonist, beyond feckless hero and into his own category of naive higher-ground mentality. When in the space of a few days, his mentor is killed along with the Mayor for whom Alex is a bodyguard, Alex falls for a gangster, then the killings ramp up; soon it's clear that the killer is skillful, clever, and elusive.


Rife with the post-bootlegging culture of organized crime on the East Coast and with a moral culture totally antagonistic to same-sex involvement, along with subtle explications of classism and socioeconomics, NO GOOD MEN is a fascinating Series debut. I received it originally from NetGalley, and enjoyed it so much I purchased it.

It’s been a rough couple years in queer romance publishing: Riptide lost an editor for racism and harrassment, Dreamspinner is demonstrating extremely dodgy behavior *at best*, and Less Than Three Press recently made a graceful exit from the stage. Larger publishers have started buying more queer romances but it’s still a trickle where we want a pool.
All of which is to say I’m incredibly grateful for the work NineStar Press is doing: queer romance of so many subgenres and heat levels, especially speculative, with a freewheeling sense of risk-taking. Like Thea McAlistar’s noir m/m mystery, with a romance arc but no on-the-page sex, and plenty of hard-bitten cynicism.
There are detectives of brilliance: Sherlock Holmes of course, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, the terrifying razor blade of Miss Marple’s intuition. But I reserve a certain part of my heart for detectives who are just a bit dim, and a lot stubborn. Holly from *The Third Man*; the Dude from *The Big Lebowski*; Harry from *Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang*. And now Alex Dawson, a sometime pulp writer turned bodyguard, who starts poking into the murder of the mayor he was supposed to be guarding. Not out of any regard for the mayor himself, but because the other bodyguard killed was Alex’s dear friend, and he just wants to know the answer to a simple question: Why?
It’s a wonderful setup, where the publicly important death matters to us much less than the emotionally important death. Like any good noir, the personal looms larger than the political, and watching Alex cope with the assault on his rickety found family will break your heart in the best way. It’s also the first in a projected series, and I have high hopes of seeing more of this cast of characters—at least, the ones who survive. Spoilers? Sorry: this book has a higher body count than my usual recommendations. And a lot of guns. It must be said that the romance arc is definitely a bit secondary, and readers in search of fluff will want to look elsewhere.
Readers in search of something gritty but not grim, tragic but not nihilistic, will come away amply satisfied.

I liked how every character that was introduced had a purpose. The plot was very interesting and kept me wondering what would happen next.

All in all this was a decent book. It wasn't hard to read, but it wasn't a page turner by any means. The world seemed fairly historically accurate, though I'll admit I don't know much about the era. The action was okay, though the plot was pretty obvious. There wasn't really much mystery. The characters were a bit two-dimensional as well. I feel like if there had been a bit more time to fleshing them out it would have been a vast improvement.

No Good Men is a historical mystery novel written by Thea McAlistair. This book piqued my interest because it’s set in the 1930s and features gangsters and a m/m romantic subplot.

Alex is in his early 20s, and working alongside his mentor Donnie as a bodyguard for the mayor. They’re at a nightclub one night, and while Alex is talking to a man at the bar during his break, the mayor and Donnie are both shot and killed.

It turns out that Sev, the man Alex was taking to, is the nightclub’s manager, and he has mob ties. The mayor’s death might also be linked to organized crime, and so Alex begins asking questions, although it is more for his mentor’s sake than for the mayor.

And of course, the mayor’s murder wasn’t an accident, or even one disgruntled citizen. As more people connected to the case are killed, it’s clear that Alex is in the middle of a dangerous situation.

Alex grows closer to Sev over the course of the book, although I must say that the romantic subplot was underemphasized. That is, other characters mention it, but there are barely any hints of affection between Alex and Sev because McAlistair prefers a rather drastic fade to black approach: in one instance, they were figuring out whose house they should go to for an assignation, and then when the next scene began, they were waking up together. I don’t mean to suggest that this book needed play-by-play love scenes like a romance novel, but I did come away feeling like I was missing something from the romance between Alex and Sev. Clearly, 1930s social attitudes contributed to Alex and Sev’s inability to be open about their budding relationship, but it did seem to be a fairly open secret amongst the secondary characters.

The pace of the book was good, with a steady flow of new developments to keep the mystery satisfying. Alex was a reliable narrator; at times, he seemed very unsure of himself, but I think this made him more reliable and authentic. Alex is bolstered by a strong cast of secondary characters, and I would have to say that my favorite was Pearl, a young neighbor. She had a preternatural ability to turn up at the wrong time, but her insatiable curiosity was delightful.

I would recommend No Good Men to fans of historical mystery. This was an interesting book, and I am looking forward to reading more from McAlistair in the future.


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is another of those books I picked up on Netgalley, as I try and kickstart my reading habits again - yes, I have other stuff to finish and/or review but I thought I'd write about this one first, while it's still fresh in my memory.

No Good Men seemed like an ideal book for me, being m/m historical romance set in the 1930's. Our protagonist, Alex, is a would-be pulp novellist working as a bodyguard for the local mayor after his friend pulled a few strings, so when both the mayor and his friend are killed and the police don't seem to particularly care, Alex decides he needs to investigate. Matters are confused a little by the budding romance between him and the nightclub owner, who has a fearful reputation and ties to the area's gangsters. As Alex's investigation continues, people keep getting killed.

So far, so good. To my relatively untutored eye, the world-building seems believable enough but it's let down by the fact that both Alex and his love interest Sev are a bit two-dimensional. I don't really find myself caring what happens to either of them, let alone their relationship, and that doesn't help build any kind of tension as matters come to a head. There's also a singularly annoying child of the plot moppet variety, who exists solely to push the plot forward and also provide the final clue to the identity of the killer.

All in all, No Good Men isn't a bad first novel but the author will need to really flesh out their characters and make their readers give a damn about what happens to them if they intend to make a career of this thing.

I’m always up for a good M/M historical and the blurb for “No Good Men” caught my eye because of its Depression era setting, right after the end of Prohibition and before the start of WWII. We get an introduction into the world of seedy nightclubs, dirty politics, and mob murders. The plot delves into a series of murders and the amateur detective efforts of Alex Dawson, unemployed former bodyguard of the murdered mayor and a freelance writer.

The author does a good job of giving several secondary characters some in-depth development, enough that we start to get a sense of the era and the dynamics of the time. However, the two main characters are very lightly fleshed-out, in particular Alex’s shadowy lover Severo Argenti (Sev) who gets little in the way of broadening his background and personality. Also, with the sex off-page throughout, it’s difficult to get a sense of the dynamics of their relationship.

“No Good Men” was very hit and miss for me personally. 3 stars.

Set in 1934, this novel deals primarily with both murder mystery and homosexuality at the same time. The protagonist, Alex is a wise, soft-hearted ( I seriously feel his character and job as a bodyguard contrasts with each other) yet portrayed as someone who is an intuitive detective. The book got a lot of edd and flow. Certain chapters move swiftly with a gripping plot and then there are parts where it stretches way too much for my liking. On the other hand, the author has described the society of the 30s era, which made the book more of a socio-political rather than wholly a murder mystery. A lot of secondary characters give the storyline a cluttered look. Overall it was an average reading experience.

I have to say that I well enjoyed this book. It has quite interesting plot, maybe not very original, but still interesting enough for me.
Alex is a writer and a bodyguard. One night he meets a handsome man. The same night his boss, and his mentor died. Alex tries to find out who killed them. Sev, the man he met that night, helps him.
I liked the characters, but I am not a huge fan of "insta love". The relationship between Alex and Sev developed very quickly from bed partners to love of their lives.
The ending was good enough, mistery solved, but not very suprising.
3.5 stars from me

This was a decent enough book but I found it very hard to get invested in either the characters or the mystery. The characters all seemed a bit like stock characters and the main characters basically fell in love immediately after meeting so for the rest of the book I was like 'why are you acting like you've been together for years you met on Tuesday??'. It's decent enough if you are just in the mood for a quick historical M/M romance though and it's very admirable for a debut novel.

No Good Men by Thea McAlistair is a well written mystery that will drop you into 1934 and the depression. The author makes you weep at how homosexuals and black folk are treated and while I guessed the murder fairly early there was enough other things going on to keep me enthralled. I really enjoyed this story and look forward to more from this author and this series.

“Because naïve suckers like you get ripped apart.”

Yep, naïve is definitely the right word to describe Dawson. While I liked the setting and the atmosphere of the story, Dawson is way too juvenile and naïve for a man in his position. He’s too old to be acting the way he acts when he’s supposed to be believable as a part-time body guard. He doesn’t seem capable of handling any situation on his own, much less a self-appointed murder investigation. I could have bought it if he’d been 19 or 20, but from my guess work based on his guess work about Sev’s age, I think he’s somewhere between 24 and 29 years old. For someone with his hard-knock childhood and someone trying to make it during the depression where every penny is precious and hard-earned, he comes off as almost helpless.

He and Sev go from flirting in a bar to sex to full blown love in the time it takes a muscle car to go from 0 to 60mph. I strongly dislike insta-love, and that’s what this relationship was. There was no building up to something bigger, no development. The relationship needed more to be believable.

Harlow was such a cliché. The typical dumb cop who puts no effort into his investigation, just tries to bully an innocent person into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Harlow was a thug. I wish some effort had been made to write him into a character that broke the mold in some way so he wasn’t such a cookie-cutter character.

And I realize all of this makes it sound as though I disliked the book, but I didn’t. It was okay. Not great. Not anything I am likely to ever read again, but it wasn’t terrible.

No Good Men is about the lengths we go to for friends…and found family.

-=-=-=-

Alex Dawson is a part-time writer and bodyguard for the Mayor. On the night Alex meets Sev… a handsome, charming man with the same secret as Alex… his mentor and father-figure, Donnie is shot. Alex is immediately caught up in needing to find out who committed the murder and took away from him the only man who ever a father to him. The police seem to want to take Alex down, he’s lost his only source of income and he’s feeling very isolated.

I enjoyed the way the characters in this book are all connected to one another. McAlistair has plotted out an intricate novel with enough detail for the reader to figure out “who done it” without giving anything away. Being gay in the 1930s isn’t easy. Alex lives a life in which he spends a lot of time not acknowledging who he is.

Once Alex gets to know Sev… he realizes that things are far more complicated than he had initially thought. Sev is part of the local Mob family and Alex finds himself falling for a man he knows little about. This book has one of my favorite features! The fact that Alex and Sev are gay… isn’t THE plot… it’s simply part of their lives. While they struggle with being gay at a time when it is still illegal, the two men have embraced who they are and try to live as authentically as they can.

There are some wonderful characters in this book. There is a little girl named, Pearl in Alex’s life. She appears often when her boxer father is drunk and abusive … something that pulls up memories from Alex’s own past. One of the locals is Martin… a feisty and sharp doctor who was forced out of the medical field for reasons he keeps to himself. Vern is a quick-talking ruthless reporter (with a heart) who wants to get the story at almost any cost.

This lovely roster of well-developed characters weave in and out of each other’s lives as the mystery in this story is slowly unraveled. I loved the detail in this novel… it really gives the reader a feel of living in the 30s.

Strong 4-stars from me!