Back in the 80s, there was a film called The Boys Next Door starring Maxwell Caulfield and Charlie Sheen as two hot young men who go on a murderous rampage for no apparent reason. But more to come on that movie, because Allen Renfro’s slightly gayer novel Snap reminded me I needed to own that movie.
Actually, the young men in Snap have much more of a reason for their crime spree. A teen named Danny (great name) is saved from turning tricks for food by a guy he refers to only as Blue Eyes. And before long, Danny is on a road trip with Blue Eyes, who burns down churches and lures dirt bags into gay bashing him, at which point Blue Eyes kills them while having Danny film it so they can post it online.
But this isn’t just a tale of an anti-gay basher duo. As the story of Blue Eyes’ past starts to unfold through trips to the cemetery and to visit his mentally ill mother, Danny begins to believe that he is either in cahoots with a gay vigilante known as Killer Ghost…or that he’s actually traveling with the ghost of a young man who was mutilated in a gay bashing and left for dead on a church doorway.
It takes some time to get to the twists and turns of the story, but once you reach them, they come fast and furious, at which point you really can’t put the book down until the final page. And really, there’s no way you’re going to guess the twist on twist finale.
Snap is a straight up suspense/thriller, so don’t go into it looking for anything on the erotic side. And also, if you’re a stickler for grammar, be prepared to have your patience tested because Renfro pretty much throws out the rule book. My editor would be throwing the book at me if I tried to pull the stunts he does!
