Last night, instead of sleeping, I read the new Mark Richard Zubro mystery, Dead Egotistical Morons. I tend to like this guy's books. Sure, he's no Lawrence Block, but I still enjoy the stories and the characters (he has two series: the Paul Turner Series about a gay cop and the Tom and Scott Series about a gay school teacher and his pro baseball player boyfriend.) As I said, I like the characters so I read the books.

But he must have phoned this one in. Not only was it a pretty boring read (which most of his others haven't been), it didn't add anything to the development of the principle characters. The new characters (the murder victims, suspects, etc.) were two-dimensional cut outs. Frankly I'm surprised he even bothered naming them. We had Evil Record Executive, Slimy Reporter, Horny Choreographer, Asshole Agent, and the members of the boy band (Dead Guy, Fragile Guy, Joker Guy, Dead Guy 2 and Other). Then there was the guy who had no motive whatsoever to be the killer, so you had to be pretty sure he was. But the reason he was the killer . . . ? Well, let's just say, you don't see it coming. Why? Because it's stupid.

I still recommend checking out his books. But I think his earlier ones are better.