Is there a better way to enter Pride month than reading a super gay murder mystery? (Trick question – there is clearly no better way.)
Thanks to the author, as well as Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley for the review copy.
Mikey Hartford IV has coasted through his twenties in a distracted blur of yachts and sex and partying. But when his father discovers his latest million-dollar impulse buy and changes the terms of his trust, the party’s finally over. Now, unless Mikey can make a positive contribution to the world before his thirtieth birthday—one that doesn’t involve throwing cash at his problems—he’ll never see another yacht again. (Or even so much as a canoe.)
Enter: Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York where Mikey has to work as the oldest, least-qualified staffer to prove that he can “do good” alongside his twelve-year-old aunt. (Yes, aunt.) But Mikey isn’t sure he’ll be able to survive the camp’s ramshackle living conditions, let alone the gaggle of preteens who won’t leave his side. And when his campers become obsessed with a local legend set at an abandoned cabin on the grounds, Mikey’s chances of not making it through the summer become dangerously real—because it turns out there’s a murder hidden beneath Camp Lore. And someone there will stop at nothing to keep it that way.
Solving a decade-old cold case will surely be enough “good” for Mikey to earn his inheritance. He just has to stay alive long enough to do it…
A Murder Most Camp is the story of Mikey Hartford IV, the heir to the HartMart fortune. When his father finds out that he’s basically bought a several million dollar house for more-or-less the best friend he’s always wanted to get into bed with, he locks down Mikey’s inheritance unless he can prove that he has done some good in the world. He sends Mikey along with his 12-year-old aunt Annabelle to Camp Lore – a camp in Upstate New York meant to get the rich kids of the city out into nature.
Once there, he finds himself trying to solve the local mystery of a girl who went missing 13 years earlier… along with a precocious gang of preteens… and an alarmingly hot lifeguard slash roommate. Shenanigans ensue!
I thought this was a great read! I picked it up expecting to fall asleep and suddenly it was 3AM and I had to get up in 3 hours. Worth it!
I didn’t start out liking Mikey. He starts out very much the picture of the spoiled rich nepo baby who is not quite sure what to do with himself when presented with nature, or children, or a hot lifeguard roomate. Mikey grows as a character quite a lot over the course of the novel, and it quite endearing. The romance that happens between Mikey and Jackson (that’s the hot lifeguard slash roommate, if that were not obvious) was quite cute.
The mystery kept me guessing, the book had me laughing, and since I am of the same generation as Mikey, I got all his references (especially the Clueless ones).
“No good deed goes unpunished.”
Mikey digs deep to resist the homosexual urge to respond to Judy’s statement with an Elphaba reference.
All told, I had a great time with A Murder Most Camp. I’ll definitely try to read more by this author in the future. 4.5/5 stars!~
superstardrifter 
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