Product Description

Deputy Joe Peterson is Mormon and in the closet. Then ex-con Kabe Varghese lands in town on parole. When a tourist falls off the mountain, Joe finds he needs the help of this cliff climbing adrenaline junky to solve the case. Will Kabe tear him apart or does Joe need to fall hard before he can start living?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44742 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 228 pages

Customer Reviews

TO THY SELF BE TRUE
Hard Fall is a multi-level thought inspiring story of coming to terms with yourself and existing prejudice. Joe is a man who accepts that he is "in the closet", yet he still has faith. Kabe is openly gay, serving his parole living and working on a ranch with his relatives. Working a crime scene together alone in the Utah wilderness, Joe cannot conceal the fact that he is gay, Mormon and desires Kabe. James Buchanan gives an excellent illustration of passion interwoven with how "the righteous in their own minds" people promote prejudice without giving thought to the fact that their words and actions are a violation of the very teachings they are attempting to enforce on others.

Beautifully written, a wonderful read
I won't go into the plot as others have already done that, but I had to write a review of this wonderful gem of a book in order to give it the five stars that it deserves.

The characters are fully formed and sympathetic. It doesn't take more than a few pages to begin to care deeply about them and the situation in which they find themselves. I've lived parts of Joe's story and the author did a wonderful job of portraying the range of emotions that he went through.

While there are some wonderful erotic moments, the story itself stands alone.

It's not the fall that kills you, it's the abrupt stop...
Don't get me wrong, this book is a great read (as an e-book read on an iPhone), but there are some editing problems. If the German "turon" prized her photography, as she allegedly did, she would have had an "SLR" camera, with an SD card, not a "SIM card" (found in a cellphone) and she would not likely photograph a sunset with the date imprint turned on. (The digital file would have been dated, however.) Kabe's eyes go from green to hazel and back again from page to page. (Hazel eyes, like the hazelnut, are usually described as "light-brown and gold.") Casting the editing side, the character development is excellent, though referring to Kabe as a "city boy" if he can climb well enough to perch like a frog upside down on the underside of a boulder is a bit much. You don't learn that by climbing climbing walls in a gym!

The religious aspect reminded me of Robin Reardon's Thinking Straight. but the Mormon/LDS twist on sex is as dogmatic as any: no sex (NONE) outside of marriage. And Joe is a believer right down to his special underwear. After the film Latter Days -- written and directed by a former LDS -- I thought it would be hard to surprise me with additional Mormon facts, but Ms. Buchanan has many. And the climbing jargon sounds like it comes from a pro. Certainly worth the price of the download!