Beautiful Corpse

Marshall James Thrillers, Book 2

By: Mark McNease

Narrated by: Sean Rhead

It’s been over a year since Marshall James first became intimately familiar with murder. He’s six months sober now and happily living with the love of his life, LAPD Detective Mac McElroy. Despite the coming storm of AIDS and its devastating toll on the world Marshall knows, his dark days seem to be behind him. Then one night he says the wrong thing, storms out in anger, and walks straight into a nightmare. Someone is setting him up to take the fall for a beautiful corpse. But who would do something so evil, and so planned? Within hours he finds himself running from the police and the mob, and running toward a killer he must apprehend before the only chance left is no chance at all.

©2020 Mark McNease (P)2020 MadeMark Publishing

Gay man set up for murder in CA in the 80s

I enjoyed this audiobook. It is book 2 of a series and book 1 is referred to but enough information is given that I understood what was happening without having read book 1. I liked the character of Marshall James, a gay man in California in the 1980s. After fighting with his lover, he goes out to a bar and finds himself in bed with a corpse the next morning. How he figures this out without getting caught is pretty amazing. The plot line is satisfying and the narration was excellent. Now I will go back to read book 1.

A sequel that is every bit as good as the first!!!

What a joy to listen to another Marshall James Thriller. In this second book, Beautiful Corpse, we discover that Marshall James's past catches up with him in the most surprising way. Taking place in 1984, Marshall continues to share with us the events of his life as a gay bartender in his mid-twenties. AIDS is taking its toll on the gay community and it is known that HIV is known to cause it but there was no test for it, at the time. He's living with his boyfriend in celibacy and enjoys life working in one of the hottest gay clubs in Hollywood. But things take a wrong turn when in anger he storms out on his guy and wanders to a bathhouse for a change of scenery and find himself in a bathhouse bed with a corpse, recovering from being drugged. All works out well after some incredible occurrences but the strain it puts on his relationship is mentioned. Once again, Mark McNease writes a tight, smooth mystery with not one slow or boring spot in the entire book. The book was so much like visiting an old friend who resumes fascinating reminiscences about his interesting, and at times hazardous life. The narrator, Sean Rhead, was incredible and a great fit for Marshall James. Such a pleasure to hear him read!

An excellent story!

This is a sequel to Murder at the Paisley Parrot and like that one, is told by the protagonist as a remembrance of his life.

What we have here is a Marshall James who is clean, sober and living happily with Kevin. In the beginning, at least...

A fight with Kevin has Marshall running away to a bathhouse, where a bit of inconsequential flirting becomes a nightmare and now Marshall is running for his life.

Set in 1984, with the ever-present spectre of AIDS looming in the background, this is a fantastic story that kept me hooked until the end. And I must say, the epilogue broke my heart :(

Another great story by an author that knows how to submerge you into the places and times of his stories.

And Sean Rhead did a good job with the narration.

Definitely worth listening to

I was a little unsure about the narrator at times but, basically, I thought that Beautiful Corpse was an excellent addition to my Audible library. Mark always writes a good story and I found the ending to this one to be especially moving. I would like to know about Mac too so here's hoping that we find out soon.

Decent Mystery

Not the strongest mystery and there’s a few plot holes but decent writing overall. Marshall is an interesting character. Good narration.