Q Audiobooks: Michael Craft’s Mark Manning Series Concludes with ‘Bitch Slap’, Narrated by David Phillips
Q Audiobooks is a regular feature offering audiobooks of interest for the LGBTQ+ listener.
Listen up! The seventh and final installment of Michael Craft’s iconic Mark Manning mysteries has just been released as an audiobook, completing the series. ‘Bitch Slap’, first published in 2004, joins the other six audiobooks, all narrated by David Phillips. The combined audiobooks offer nearly 84 hours of listening pleasure, so start with one and don’t stop until you’ve heard them all.
Journalist Mark Manning has been successfully running his family’s newspaper, The Dumont Daily Register, for several years now, and he sits on the board of two local companies, Quatro Press and Ashton Mills. So, when the respective CEOs of these companies discuss a merger, it is only natural that Manning be interested in the proceedings. What’s more, Manning’s lover Neil, an architect, is designing a new house for Ashton’s CEO, Gillian Reece.
Reece is a business friend of Manning, but not a friend to many else; she is generally considered overly aggressive and fastidious. When Manning assigns Glee Savage, the newspaper’s society reporter, to cover Reece’s new home, the subsequent meeting between the two does not end well: Savage huffs off in a fury, but not before ferociously bitch-slapping Reece in front of everyone. With Reece’s cheek still smarting, more bad news comes, as the accountant performing due diligence for the merger reports some very questionable items regarding Ashton’s books.
It seems as though things couldn’t go much worse for the unpleasant Reece. That is, until she is murdered. The discovery of her body is greeted with great surprise, but perhaps not much regret on the part of most who knew her. Still, with Manning’s friend and employee Glee Savage as the obvious and primary suspect, he cannot resist wading in to this most unsound of business dealings.
Michael Craft is the author of 15 published novels, including the highly acclaimed Mark Manning mystery series, three installments of which were honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. His latest title, “FlabberGassed: A Mister Puss Mystery,” marks his return to the gay-mystery genre — with a decidedly quirky twist. Craft grew up in Illinois and spent his middle years in Wisconsin, which inspired the fictitious small-town setting of his new book. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and now resides in Rancho Mirage, California. In 2017, Michael Craft’s professional archives were acquired by the Special Collections Department of the Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside. Visit the author’s website at www.michaelcraft.com. You can hear my interview with the author at the One Thing or Another Podcast.