‘Upon this Rock’ mixes drama and humor and is a heck of a mystery

The buzz around mystery writer David Eugene Perry is justified.

I don’t think I’ve read a book in years. I usually wait for the movie. I’m not a Millennial but I mostly read things through social media with links that say things like “3 minute read.”

Have we all gotten too busy with social media that we can’t pick up a book?

I’ve been hearing lots of buzz surrounding the novel “Upon this Rock” by David Eugene Perry. I’ve heard it described as “Tales of the City” meets “The Da Vinci Code.”

Wow, that is some comparison. Armistead Maupin’s “City” series are among my favorite books.

When I got my hands on the book, I saw a lot of positive quotes on the book jacket – including a rave from Maupin himself: “Perry has written an elegant, twisty thriller in which a gay couple investigates a mysterious suicide in a scenic Italian hill town.  It’s not hard to imagine that this book could do for Orvieto what Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil did for Savannah.”

So while I usually wait for the movie, I picked this book up and sat down to read it. And I am so glad I did.

Not to be trite, but it really is a page-turner and exciting international adventure and mystery that takes place in Italy and feels as much a travelogue as it does an exciting adventure with vibrant, exciting and provocative characters.

Main characters Lee and Adriano, a gay couple from San Francisco, become amateur sleuths in their adventures as they learn about the death of a deacon a year earlier. They decide to make this almost their excursion adventure in trying to solve the mystery around his seemingly covered-up death.

Writer Perry has not only put together a wonderful puzzle for our characters and ourselves to solve, but he proves to be an excellent wordsmith.
Perry’s choice of words, sentences and phrases is much like the work of a painter, as he makes deliberate and beautiful choices in this masterful piece of fiction. It really is a talent to be a writer of this caliber, creating mystery and drama, while peppering in humor and pathos. 

Even my reporting on this wonderful novel can’t match the style and flair of Perry.  I am just reporting and informing – he is creating art.

“Upon this Rock” can be found wherever good books are sold and here. Visit the author’s website here.