Innuendo: A Todd Mills Mystery

When one of Hollywood's hottest properties, the hunky Tim Chase, rolls into the Twin Cities for a shoot, TV news reporter Todd Mills (Outburst, etc.) finds himself in the midst of a big story. Chase has been hounded by rumors that he is gay, despite his fairy tale marriage to female superstar Gwen Owens. Mills, one of broadcasting's few openly gay reporters, is a natural to interview him. But before Mills meets Chase, Mills's lover, homicide detective Steve Rawlins, tells the reporter that 17-year-old Andrew Lyman has just been found with his throat slit. The news hits hard because Mills and Rawlins had met Andrew just a few months ago while volunteering at a gay and lesbian youth center. What Mills doesn't yet know, but soon finds out, is that Rawlins and Andrew may have been more than just friends. As the relationship between Rawlins and Mills cools off, the reporter's encounters with Chase heat up, especially when Chase invites Mills for an off-the-record interview that ends up being as much foreplay as work. Rawlins, meanwhile, investigates the killing; the hunt accelerates after Rawlins stumbles on Mills and Chase in a hot embrace, and the cop accuses the actor of being involved in the murder. Zimmerman offers sensitive depictions of the difficulties of gay adolescents, but balances them with tantalizing Hollywood glitz. Smartly paced and emotionally resonant, the novel winds up with a stunning, steamy denouement that will keep readers on the edges of their beds. Author tour. (Nov.)