Outburst

A confusion of sexual identities colors the latest case for gay Minneapolis TV reporter Todd Mills, last seen in Hostage (1997). While following up on a call to his office, Mills is set up as a witness to murder on a Minneapolis bridge in the middle of a tornado. When it turns out that the victim was a gay cop, both Mills and his lover, homicide detective Steve Rawlins, are involved personally and professionally. Further contacts from the killer spur Mills's investigation and suggest a link to the killing of another gay cop. Suspicions all point to a transsexual suspect whose past is darkened by a death in California. Aware that he is being manipulated, Mills uses his investigative skills and his contacts in the gay community to sort out the truth, at the same time leading Rawlins and another close friend from his college days, attorney Janice Gray, into mortal danger. Zimmerman's portrayal of the gay community is fully dimensioned, and his characters, gay and straight, are are engaging and complicated. The fast-paced plot incorporates the capricious summer weather of the upper Midwest to grand effect, both in the beginning and at the spine-tingling, satisfying conclusion. (Oct.)