The Condoms of Doom

CONDOMS OF DOOM DESCRIPTION: When dysfunctional Private Detective Eleanor Oogley B'Stard is hired to find the whereabouts of Lord Henry Worth little does she know that she is entering the world of crazed toxicologist Professor Angus Klondike Hague, a homophobe who has developed condoms infused with a deadly venom causing agonising death within minutes. His object is to decimate the world's gay population leaving gay men the world over in a state of fear and shock. Set in the mid-eighties when the AIDS virus is just starting to spiral out of control, this black comedy makes a nonsense of the idea of safe-sex, as the use of a condom could well be the most dangerous choice one could make. As Lord Henry Worth is the first to fall victim to Hague, Oogley B'Stard is urged to continue her investigation so that the villain is brought to justice. This sets in motion a chase that moves frantically from Manchester to New York, San Francisco to London until the killer is finally confronted in Leeds in the north of England. Probably the greatest appeal of this book is the many and varied colourful characters that take part. While not being a novel that is exclusively gay oriented, many of the principal characters are gay, and much of the action takes place in gay bars and clubs around the world. The two main characters, Lady Oogley B'Stard and Moses Goldblum, are very much heterosexual; one, the heroine of the piece, a bankrupt aristocrat turned Private Investigator, falls in love with Moses, a failed swineherd, despite being engaged to Lord Digby Scroatham. The two of them meet on the doomed ocean liner Titanica, a full-size replica of the original Titanic which as a direct result of 'cost-cutting' ends in the ship meeting the same fate as its' illustrious predecessor; namely, it collides with an enormous iceberg and sinks. Along the way, the couple make friends with some fascinating characters. These include Captain Klitterhausen, First Officer Bruce Goodnight, an adorable gay couple Richard Dick and Richard Head (more commonly known as Dick Dick and Dick Head). They also befriend several other passengers and crew, all of whom agree to help the two of them track down the evil Klondike Hague in the quest to bring the evil murderer to justice. After the sinking of the great ship, the survivors are rescued by another ocean liner called the Amadeus which transports them to New York. Once in this great city, our band of sleuths pursue the villainous Hague until their final shock encounter with him at the close of the book. In summary, then, this is a novel that features non-stop action, a whole host of colourful characters both straight and gay, a voyage aboard an ill-fated ocean liner and a wild pursuit on both sides of the Atlantic. In this wild cat-and-mouse chase, the reader is taken on a roller-coaster ride of dark adult humour, unusual locations, and insight into the gay villages in some of the world's greatest cities.