FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK: An M/M Mystery-Romance Anthology

Written by Josh Lanyon, LB Gregg, Nicole Kimberling and 5 more

Narrated by Kale Williams and Joel Leslie

The snick of a lock. The squeak of door hinges. The creak of a floorboard . . .

Nothing is more mysterious than footsteps in the dark. Are those approaching steps that of friend or enemy? Lover or killer?

Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541407220

Josh Lanyon

Author of nearly ninety titles of classic Male/Male fiction featuring twisty mystery, kickass adventure, and unapologetic man-on-man romance, JOSH LANYON’S work has been translated into eleven languages. Her FBI thriller Fair Game was the first Male/Male title to be published by Harlequin Mondadori, then the largest romance publisher in Italy. Stranger on the Shore (Harper Collins Italia) was the first M/M title to be published in print. In 2016 Fatal Shadows placed #5 in Japan’s annual Boy Love novel list (the first and only title by a foreign author to place on the list). The Adrien English series was awarded the All-Time Favorite Couple by the Goodreads M/M Romance Group. In 2019, Fatal Shadows became the first LGBTQ mobile game created by Moments: Choose Your Story.She is an EPIC Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist (twice for Gay Mystery), an Edgar nominee, and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads All-Time Favorite M/M Author award.Find other Josh Lanyon titles at www.joshlanyon.comFollow Josh on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Reviews for FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK

[Tamara · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I expected much more from this anthology than I got. My star average for this book is 2.8 - a fairly low rating for me. But I do not regret reading it - I discovered some new authors I will definitely add to my shelf.
Kale Williams is a good narrator, but Joel Leslie really shouldn't do non-English accents.

Entrée to Murder by Nicole Kimberling - ★★★★☆
Loved it. The mystery was decent, though I would have liked more of the romance.

Twelve Seconds by Meg Perry - ★★☆☆☆
This was an enjoyable read right up until a plot hole appeared near the end. MC1 is an investigator and MC2 is a journalist. The journalist was contacted by the victim right before the vic was killed, and that's how the two MCs meet. (view spoiler) It was a stupid mistake, and so glaringly obvious I'm surprised it wasn't caught before the story got published. As it is, I'm lowering my rating to 2 stars.

Reality Bites by S.C. Wynne - ★★★☆☆
A decent mystery, and it didn't end as I feared it would based on the first couple of chapters, which is great. The romance part was lacking chemistry though - I couldn't feel it at all and it was kind of boring.

Blind Man's Buff by L.B. Gregg - ★☆☆☆☆
This was a slasher flick, not a mystery. The MC was funny at first but got annoying really fast, and I got the impression the writer doesn't like fat people - seeing how every one of the "good guys" was distinctly described as lean and/or fit, and the only bad guy was described as fat, and there was a running commentary on how he should just get a heart-attack and die. This kind of problematic writing is not a first for L.B. Gregg - I also remember a similar thing done to a trans character in one of her previous books, and it's why I don't think this was an honest mistake.

A Country for Old Men by Dal Maclean - ★★★★☆
This was my first Dal Maclean story and I enjoyed it even though I didn't like the MC whose POV it was written in - frankly, he was kind of exhausting. I'm tired enough of my own headspace to want to participate in anyone else's pity party. But the story itself and the writing were great.

Pepper the Crime Lab by Z.A. Maxfield - ★★★★☆
I really enjoyed this story. It had the right balance of serious and light-hearted. I haven't read Z.A. Maxfield in a loong while (I've been steering clear of her books - but it was not really a conscious decision), so it felt almost like it was my first time reading one of her books. I loved it.

Lights, Camera, Murder by C.S. Poe - ★★★☆☆
3.5 stars. Another new-for-me author, and I was not disappointed. I liked the story, but I feel like it wasn't fleshed out enough - like it wasn't meant to be a short story, but a longer story that was cut down to its bare bones to fist a page requirement. But even so I enjoyed it a lot. I will definitely move this author up on my tbr list.

Stranger in the House by Josh Lanyon - ★★☆☆☆
There was one main thing wrong with this story - it's called "Joel Leslie does French-Canadians speaking English". It was incomprehensible and irritating. It was Beauty & the Beast's Lumiere on steroids. It completely ruined the story for me. When he's not doing accents he's an okay narrator. When he tries any non-English accent, he needs a warning label.
Other than that little niggle (*snorts*), the story was okay but the mystery was kind of on a back burner in favor of endless descriptions of furniture, art pieces & other surroundings.

[Elena A · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I discovered at least two 5 star novellas with the urge to read more by the author. I REALLY LIKED (4+ stars) at least three of the novellas & the rest were a good passing time with an easy-to-get-into audiobook story

The audiobook is good
Both narrators are great

I like anthologies for they let me discover new authors

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am predisposed to romance, mystery, and M/M, so this is right up my alley.

Nicole Kimberling - Entree to Murder - Chef and Cop, both pretty likable. Unfortunately the ending was weak. The careless traipsing into danger was already a stretch of all decent sense, but then to be told very pointedly that the entire case had already been solved and that there had been no benefit whatsoever to risking their lives, was kind of a nail in the coffin. (If the situation had been made so that his friend would have perhaps been killed in the meantime it would have at least been something, but she was unlikely to have ventured that far without him). I think this was entirely from the Chef's POV if I'm recalling right, which I get with the mystery, but it kinda keeps me a bit on the outside with the love interest. I would consider reading something else by this author though. Rounding up, 3 stars.

Meg Perry - Twelve Seconds - Journalist and southern ex-cop (he's like a special agent with the airforce or something now but also a civilian? I didn't get a firm handle on it.) I enjoyed the dynamic between these two more than the mystery, but the mystery facilitated their budding relationship well, so I'm fine with it. Dual PoV. 4 stars.

S.C. Wynne - Reality Bites - Cop and TV producer(?) Single PoV from the cop. I found these two likable enough, but I think there was more of a focus on the mystery than developing their characters, (and the mystery was only so-so). Still I had sort of mild feelings of happiness when they got together. 3 stars.

L.B. Gregg - Blind Man's Buff - Meh, this one was a little weak, but perhaps not down to a 2. 1st person single PoV. Two high school teachers I believe. PG. I wasn't invested enough to care that much about their trials and danger, and that was 95% of the story, so... I hadn't read anything quite like this scenario before though, and the leads weren't unlikeable. Rounding up to 3 stars.

Dal Maclean - A Country for Old Men - This one was especially interesting to me, and I always feel like novellas lend themselves well to 2nd chance romances, (complete strangers to soulmates is harder to believably pull off in so limited of pages). Their hurdle was very buyable, and the danger in the end was well plotted. It was kinda touching as well. I hadn't read this author before, but I will seek out more. 5 stars.

Z.A. Maxfield - Pepper the Crime Lab - Meh, I didn't hate this, but it just didn't reel me in at all, and I was kind of indifferent, at best, to both leads. Forgettable. 2 stars.

C.S. Poe - Lights, Camera, Murder - P.I. and actor, single PoV. The mystery and plot were kind of meh, but I did like the characters alright, so I'm okay rounding up. 3 stars.

Josh Lanyon - Stranger in the House - Artist/Heir, class difference and first crush tropes. Single PoV. I liked these two and felt satisfied with their HEA. 4 stars.

Mostly new to me authors, it's nice to get a taste of their writing and storytelling abilities. I probably wouldn't write anyone off, even from the middling ones here though, because writing a short story is a whole different skill set from writing an entire novel and not everyone shows to best advantage in so few pages. Still, a couple have intrigued me, and I'll follow up with more of their work. Overall I'm pleased to have read it.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The review for this with 8 books in one is WAY too long to put in this space so I will just say this about it. There were 8 stories in the book written by most of the M/M romance authors that I read over and over. The description called them "short stories" but they were decent lengths...each at least 100 pages. The entire book has 808 pages. I bought the book from Amazon for $7.75 a month or so ago, checking today if was $29.99, so I got a really good bargain and some really good stories from that deal. I averaged the 8 stories to come up with the4.5-star rating. The lowest star rating I gave any of them was 3 and the highest was 5.