Theater professor Nicky Abbondanza is directing a Sherlock Holmes musical in a professional summer stock production at Treemeadow College, co-starring his husband and theatre professor colleague Noah Oliver as Dr. John Watson.
Title: Drama Detective
Series: Nicky and Noah Mystery #5
Author: Joe Cosentino
Publisher: Joe Cosentino
Release Date: October 28, 2017
Length: 217 pages
Genre: LGBT, Comedy, Mystery, Murder, Contemporary
Theater professor Nicky Abbondanza is directing a Sherlock Holmes musical in a professional summer stock production at Treemeadow College, co-starring his husband and theatre professor colleague Noah Oliver as Dr. John Watson. When cast members begin toppling over like hammy actors at a curtain call, Nicky dons Holmes’ persona on stage and off. Once again Nicky and Noah will need to use their drama skills to figure out who is lowering the street lamps on the actors before the handsome couple get half-baked on Baker Street. You will be applauding and shouting Bravo for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining fifth novel in this delightful series. Curtain up, the game is afoot!
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Review by Janice Birnie
Star rating – ★★★★★
Another rollicking romp of a tale from master storyteller Joe Cosentino.
Drama Detective is the fifth book in the Nicky and Noah Mystery series. It could be read as a standalone but the story would lose some of its depth without the back stories and histories of the main characters. This series is superbly twisted, full of murder and mayhem, and so many laugh out loud moments that it deserves to be read in order, if only for the pure pleasure it will bring the reader.
Nicky Abbondonza is Professor of Play Directing at the quaint; yet ridiculously prone to murder and mayhem; Treemeadow College in Vermont. He is a tall and muscular, dark haired, green eyed hunk of a man in proud possession of a “donkey donza”. Not one for false modesty Nicky is nonetheless a delightfully engaging narrator of this story. It’s impossible not to adore him! His loving and beloved husband Noah is, by contrast, a modest man, and is slim with blonde hair and blue eyes. Their adopted eight year old Hawaiian son, Taavi, completes the family perfectly, with the charm, intelligence and wit of a far older child. Together they face dastardly villains, homophobes, assorted egotistical actors and other minor irritants with courage, verve and humour.
Drama Detective finds Nicky and Noah, along with newly adopted Taavi, back at Treemeadow College once again. Since it’s the summer break, Martin Anderson, Theatre Department Head and frequent co-conspirator in Nicky and Noah’s sleuthing, has transformed the college theatre into a professional summer stock venue to try out a new Sherlock Holmes Broadway bound musical; Is Holmes A Homo? With Martin’s long suffering husband, Ruben Markinson, as Producer, we are soon introduced to Author and Musical Director, Mark Melody, along with the actors Ruben has assembled from assorted backgrounds including theatre, day time television, a low budget indie film and pro wrestling. Naturally.
Thus the stage is set for a typical Nicky Abbondonza production, with a cast of characters with more secrets, lies, backstabbing and intrigue than a ‘Republican National Convention.’ Rehearsals begin with cast members dropping like flies and our ‘real life Sherlock Holmes’, Nicky, ably assisted by Noah, Taavi, Nicky’s brother Trevor, and our old friends Martin and Ruben is on the case and determined to find the killer.
Each Nicky and Noah Mystery Series book has a wonderfully twisted plot steeped in farce and absurdist humour. The murder ‘weapons’ are always highly original as is the motive and identity of the murderer. Trying to solve the case , along with the protagonists, is all part of the fun when reading any Joe Cosentino book in this series. One thing I can guarantee; you will not put this book down until you finish, unless it’s to recover from one of the many belly laughs you’ll engage in while reading. Another winner from this gifted author which I have no hesitation in highly recommending.
Bestselling author Joe Cosentino was voted Favorite Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Author of 2015 by the readers of Divine Magazine for Drama Queen. He also wrote the other novels in the Nicky and Noah mystery series: Drama Muscle and Drama Cruise (Lethe Press); In My Heart/An Infatuation & A Shooting Star, A Home for the Holidays, The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland (Dreamspinner Press); Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward, Cozzi Cove: Stepping Out Cozzi Cove series (NineStar Press); Paper Doll, Porcelain Doll, Satin Doll, China Doll, Rag Doll (The Wild Rose Press) Jana Lane mysteries; and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Eldridge Plays and Musicals). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. Joe was voted 2nd Place for Best MM Author of the Year in Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2015, and has won many Rainbow Award Honorable mentions including for Drama Muscle. Upcoming novels are Drama Luau (fourth Nicky and Noah mystery) and Cozzi Cove: New Beginnings (fourth Cozzi Cove beach novel, NineStar Press).
Find Joe on his Website, Facebook, Twitter @JoeCosen
Goodreads, and on his Amazon Author Page!
