</b>
some reviews ~ THE TANGLED BOY


PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
April 8, 2002

"Teenager Cory Williams is the only witness to the murder of wealthy Libertine Jordan King–as if he didn't have enough trouble with his plummeting grades, angry parents, taunting schoolmates and his secret desire for other boys. The hero of Caro Soles's (The Abulon Dance) textured, psychologically astute debut mystery, The Tangled Boy, Williams begins receiving anonymous death threats and, even worse, threats to reveal his entanglement with Jordan King."


review FROM WWW.BOOKBROWSER.COM

Intense and unnerving. Caro Soles has plotted a mystery around a coming of age story. The Tangled Boy is full of heartfelt, confused emotion.

Cory Williams is not like every other teenager. He is struggling with his sexuality. He is bi-curious, but leaning more toward homosexuality. He enjoys dressing in women's clothing. He enjoys thinking about intimacy with men.

Cory is at a gay, drug party and the host, Jordan King, is murdered. Though Cory did not witness the murder with his eyes, he heard it. He knew who was in the room with King when he died. Whoever killed King thinks Cory saw everything. The murderer threatens Cory to keep his mouth shut.

Without friends, Cory feels isolated and leans on an older man for support and understanding. However, there is little to time to explore …… as the police's search for the killer gets closer and closer to home. Somehow everyone knows Cory was at the party. Some might think Cory is the murderer.

Fast. Insightful. Great dialogue. Descriptive scenes. This may be Caro Soles first mystery, but I hope it won't be her last. She has a way of setting the stage. The puzzle pieces are there. The mystery is taut and engaging. The characters are so well developed they seem real. I look forward to other novels by this talented writer.

-- Phillip Tomasso III, author of Johnny Blade & Third Ring




by Richard Labonté, Book Marks, Q Syndicate


Teenager Corey Williams is the only witness to the murder of a wealthy playboy much given to playing with boys. The 16-year-old is also sensing his own yen for men, cruising teens his own age while falling in love with a man 30 years his senior. And, to add one more ingredient to the busily boiling pot, he lusts for the rustle of his mother's silk panties against his skin.

With The Tangled Boy, mystery fans desperate for a romantic coming-out daddy-son drag-queen young-adult story have the book of their dreams - and quite an intelligent and psychologically astute book it is. Soles handles the provocative matter of a teen boy leaving home to live with a much older lover - with his parents' permission, yet - with plausible aplomb; she details the difference between yearning to do drag and living as a cross-dresser with sure-witted delicacy; she describes the horrors of coming out in a homophobic high school with haunting intensity; and along the way she unravels the murder with pleasingly precise logic. There are times when young Corey comes across as impossibly mature, when his mother is just too understanding, and when his lover/mentor is patient to a fault - but this is entertaining fiction, after all, and not real life. Pity.





from THE MURDER EXPRESS

The Tangled Boy is an outstanding debut into the mystery genre for Caro Soles. How it will be categorized (suspense, gay noir, etc.) is a conundrum I will leave to the publishers or whoever it is that establishes that sort of thing. The Tangled Boy is unlike any mystery I have read in that the reader is not given access to those investigating the murder. Instead the reader journeys through an adolescent's acknowledgement and acceptance of his homosexuality.

Note: book contains gay sex and/or gay relationships.

The victim is Jordan King, who is notorious in the small, conservative town of Fairleigh Heights (near Toronto) for his 'gay parties and behavior'. Cory Williams was at the party the night Jordan was killed. But he was supposed to be grounded and he doesn't want his parents to know. He is gay but doesn't want his classmates to know. Cory feels he has no one to talk to. He begins to receive threatening messages. There is no one he can tell. His terror grows, but who can he trust?

Ms. Soles makes this work beautifully! You feel the angst and shame Cory is experiencing, and his anger beginning to grow at the unacceptance in Fairleigh Heights. As Cory grows in himself and his relationships, you see progress toward solving the crime. A very well-woven mystery that will intrigue you long after finishing the last page!


Reviewed by S Loper-Herzog

.


Ellen Zuckerman---FictionAddiction.NET

The mystery plot in The Tangled Boy plays second fiddle to the more important focus of this impressive new novel: the sexual confusion "with a twist" of a sensitive, intelligent teenage boy. Sixteen year-old Cory Williams may have overheard the murder of local socialite playboy Jordan Knight, but his fear of coming forward with what he knows is overwhelmed by his ongoing struggle to find his true self as he floats adrift in a sea of not-so-typical sexual awakening.

Cory has a sort of girlfriend, his good friend Bethanne, but he's not physically attracted to her. However, she remains a supporter and a friend throughout his ordeal. Cory's painfully honest revelation that he is attracted to men repels his closest male friend Sean, and targets Cory as the object of cruelty and ridicule by his classmates. His family, in particular his father, are largely unsupportive of his feelings and his behavior. He is both drawn to and repelled by the dangerous but beautiful Keith, a fellow partygoer at Jordan's house "that night."

Lonely and confused by his conflicting feelings, Cory turns to a longtime family friend, Len, for the support and love he has not found in his small town life. As the twisted tale unravels to reveal Jordan Knight's killer, Cory begins to find his comfortable place in the world.

The Tangled Boy is an unflinchingly honest and realistic portrayal of a young man's coming to terms with his identity. Soles does not paint the other gay men in her story with a stereotypical brush. We see Len and Cory's other new friends first as people, then as men who happen to be gay. In the end, the murder mystery is quickly (although not easily) solved, but, just as important to the reader, Cory learns to accept who he is--a young gay man on the brink of adulthood