(Along the way, some direct talk in street language about man-on-man sex, so not for kids or the sexually modest)
On AZ’s Astounding Bookshelf, the remarkable Mammoth Drop: Murder, Mammoths, and Mimosas (Kea Wright Mysteries) by R. J. Corgan, independently published in 2022 in paperback and Kindle editions. An ad for the book (supplied to me on Facebook yesterday by Michael Palmer, with a link to the Amazon site for the book):
(#1) Obviously up my alley: as a fan of murder mysteries and a highly visible homo, with a woo(l)ly mammoth as my totem animal (MP has my number)
The book description. On the Amazon site:
Geologist Kea Wright and her team of scientists travel the world, diving into fiery volcanoes or excavating mammoth bones in search of understanding Earth’s mysteries, but often find murder instead…
Kea is invited to the Black Hills by her mentor, Dr. Harry Campbell, to explore Mammoth Drop, a paleontological discovery of mammoth proportions. She takes up residence with the other workers nearby Woolly Hole, a luxurious gay campground filled with boozing drag queens and bottomless mimosas. However, the joyous opening of the new park takes a dark turn when Harry is found brutally murdered in the caverns.
Determined to unmask the killer, Kea teams up with her old friend Carter and his partner Leo to solve the crime. They soon find themselves trapped hundreds of feet underground, knee-deep in mammoth bones and potential suspects.
As the bodies begin to pile up, Kea must find the killer before she is the next victim.
The stories in this cozy mystery series range from thrilling adventures to comedic romps, as Kea discovers that while she may be an excellent geologist, as an amateur sleuth, she has her faults. Mammoth Drop is the [fourth] Kea Wright Mystery, but the books can be read in any order.
I would describe the book as tongue-in-cheek, but in this context that would probably just get taken as a rim shot — a reference to anilingus.
Though this description and the book it summarizes are waist-deep in queer, some of it is actually paleontological. In particular, the reference to fossil drops ‘deposits, depositories’. And of course the woolly mammoths.
Meanwhile, there are the two rainbow flags, the gay couple (Carter and Leo), the drag queens, and the mimosas. (The mimosa is a cocktail of champagne and chilled orange juice; the mimosa brunch is a stereotypical gay-male tradition, through straight men have been known to imbibe mimosas with pleasure.) And, most spectacularly, the luxurious gay campground called Woolly Hole — a name that could be understood in many ways. (Meanwhile, the site is a campground, a place for camping — introducing the noun camp ‘deliberately exaggerated and theatrical behavior or style’ (NOAD), especially as performed by gay men, plus the related verb and adjective — when it could have been a hotel, a motel, a hostel, or an apartment complex, among other things. In any case, since it’s gay, it’s also luxurious.)
Woolly Hole could be an entirely innocent name: with the head noun Hole ‘valley’ of geographical names (as in Jackson Hole WY), and the modifying adjective woolly, alluding to the woolly mammoth. On the other hand, it could be raunchy as fuck, with woolly understood as ‘hairy’, referring to body hair, and with hole understood as short for fuckhole. With fuckhole understood either as a bodypart reference — to a sexcavity: the mouth, the vagina, or the anus (in a gay male context, especially to the asshole) — or as a reference to the receptive partner in insertive sex: of the oral, vaginal, or anal variety (in a gay male context, especially to a pussyboy, a guy who takes it up the ass). As a hairy guy who was an enthusiastic pussyboy in days long past (and, incidentally, has the woolly mammoth as his prime totem animal), I am enchanted with woolly hole as a name for my asshole considered as a sexual organ, and also as a name for me as hot piece of ass. Hi! Woolly Hole’s my name, and getting fucked is my game!
But back to the book.
The book’s cover and its author. From the Amazon site:
(
(#2) The mammoth, the drag queen (in lavender), the magnifying glass (for detection), and the (pink) camper, with a big Gay Pride rainbow as backdrop
(And then:
About the author: Author of the the Kea Wright mysteries and Whisterpoop. R. J. Corgan has a Ph.D. in Geology and has conducted fieldwork across the world. He currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia
The four Kea Wright mysteries so far:
1: Cold Flood – 2017 (set in Iceland)
2: Meerkat Murders – 2019 (set in the Kalahari Desert)
3: Murder on Masaya- 2021 (set by the Nicaraguan volcano Masaya)
4: Mammoth Drop – 2022
(Only Mammoth Drop has the gay counterpoint.)
January 10, 2024 at 8:51 am |
Thanks for the tip. The series sounds interesting.
January 10, 2024 at 9:04 am |
The reviews are all over the map. I’ve ordered Mammoth Drop (affordable even on my budget), but it won’t arrive for a couple more days. Then maybe I can give you my own opinion.