Michael
Michael Nava is a gay lawyer and writer. In the 1980s he wrote a mystery series featuring Henry Rios, a gay defense attorney. I devoured this series when it first came out, and it is still one of my favorite series. The first novel in the series is A Little Death. Nava has revised/rewritten/reimagined this novel as Lay Your Head Down.
Of course, Henry Rios is still the main character. He is a young, burnt-out public defender, rapidly spiraling toward alcoholism. In the reworking, he has just quit his position as a public defender, since one of his innocent clients was just convicted and he can’t take it anymore. I believe this is a new plot point. However, as in A Little Death, he meets Hugh Paris, a young, good-looking (of course), junkie struggling to stay clean. An affair begins and lasts until Hugh is found dead, with a needle in his arm. Was this murder or the inevitable end of a drug addict? Added to this, Hugh’s body was found on the campus of Linden University (a lightly disguised Stanford University) and Hugh is a descendent of the founder of this University.
As in A Little Death, I raced through this novel. The writing is as good as I remembered, Henry is as sympathetic a character as I remembered, the plot is just as satisfying. Did it need to be rewritten? Perhaps not, although as I remember it, the original plot had several important differences. The two are different enough to stand on their own. So why is this not a five star for me. The original was a discovery—I had never read anything like it. The revised novel is as good as the original, but it doesn’t have that spark of discovery. Will I read more of the revised Henry Rios series? Absolutely.
Michael Nava is a gay lawyer and writer. In the 1980s he wrote a mystery series featuring Henry Rios, a gay defense attorney. I devoured this series when it first came out, and it is still one of my favorite series. The first novel in the series is A Little Death. Nava has revised/rewritten/reimagined this novel as Lay Your Head Down.
Of course, Henry Rios is still the main character. He is a young, burnt-out public defender, rapidly spiraling toward alcoholism. In the reworking, he has just quit his position as a public defender, since one of his innocent clients was just convicted and he can’t take it anymore. I believe this is a new plot point. However, as in A Little Death, he meets Hugh Paris, a young, good-looking (of course), junkie struggling to stay clean. An affair begins and lasts until Hugh is found dead, with a needle in his arm. Was this murder or the inevitable end of a drug addict? Added to this, Hugh’s body was found on the campus of Linden University (a lightly disguised Stanford University) and Hugh is a descendent of the founder of this University.
As in A Little Death, I raced through this novel. The writing is as good as I remembered, Henry is as sympathetic a character as I remembered, the plot is just as satisfying. Did it need to be rewritten? Perhaps not, although as I remember it, the original plot had several important differences. The two are different enough to stand on their own. So why is this not a five star for me. The original was a discovery—I had never read anything like it. The revised novel is as good as the original, but it doesn’t have that spark of discovery. Will I read more of the revised Henry Rios series? Absolutely.