That's the key thing for me. This was brought home to me when I began reading Neil Plakcy's MAHU.

MAHU is a police procedural set in Hawaii. It's about Kimo Kanapa'aka, a mixed race homicide detective with a secret--and it's not his passion for surfing.

Now I'm not that interested in Hawaii. It's always seemed like a place full of tourists and way too much sunshine (I'm more of a rainy day guy). And I often have problems with police procedurals--mostly due to the way cops are portrayed. (Is it mandatory that every homicide detective be haunted by the memory of having let that mega-crazed serial killer dispatch that one particular victim in front of him?)

Now, I will say here and now that Plakcy does a terrific job of describing Hawaii--both the Hawaii tourists know and the "real" Hawaii. Excellent eye for evocative detail. And he does a good job with describing police procedure and routine--enough to give veracity but not so much as to overwhelm the story. He's done his research but he's not hitting us over the head with his nightstick.

But what kept me reading late into the night was the character of Kimo. And I'm trying to think what it is that makes this character so...likeable. He starts off the novel with a huge lapse in judgement, so why the hell are we immediately and totally on his side?

Yes, he seems...real. But that's not necessarily an endorsement since a lot of characters I don't want to spend five minutes with seem real. Really obnoxious, in fact. Yeah, Kimo has a sense of humor but he's not like a falling down funny guy. One of the main things readers talk about with Adrien English is his sense of humor, so by comparison, I would say humor is not the big draw here. Maybe it's the sincerity of tone. The book is first person and Kimo's "voice" is simple and unprevaricating. This is not to say that he doesn't lie, but he doesn't lie to himself (or, by extension, the reader).

Maybe it's the normalcy of this character--the lack of archness or quirkiness. Quirkiness has been so overdone of late. A character needs to be more than a set of mannerisms or nervous tics.

Maybe it's his competency--which, if you're going to have a cop protag, you'd think was a requirement (but you'd be surprised). It's refreshing to read about a smart character--and because we accept that this character is smart and honest, we forgive his occasional lapse of good sense. We all make mistakes, but you can't excuse perennially dumb characters on the basis of there really being a lot of dumb people in the world. Yes, truth is stranger than fiction, but I don't want spend my free time in the company of a moron (fictional or otherwise).

Josh's book is terrific. I reviewed it for Gay Web Monkey, and found it to be a witty, page-turning mystery. There's an interesting mystery revolving around his bookstore clerk's involvement with a group of fellow UCLA students who've delved a bit too deeply into Satanism, and Adrien is quite a satisfying detective. His life is filled with interesting, humorous characters, from the mousy new clerk who might just be a Wiccan to the daughters of his mother's new beau, who greet him in "a butterfly swarm of scented breasts and long legs and silky hair." The fast-paced plot keeps things moving along smartly, joining the Christmas season with the Witches' Sabbat of Yule and Adrien's mother's impending nuptials.