One Night Stand

Rating:
Summary: Heidi Fleis, move over!
Review: The men in the movie industry in Hollywood have lots of money, and money may not be able to buy you love, but it can certainly buy some pretty memorable sex! Such is the basic concept of "One Night Stand," the story of Derek, a young man who moved to California to become an actor, so he naturally ended up working as a waiter instead. When the classy restaurant he worked at closes its doors without notice, Derek has trouble finding another job, and ends up considering working as a paid escort. He places an ad in a magazine to solicit "legit" massage clients, and one of the first responses is Tom, a hunky attorney, who brings him along to a party at the house of Brent Richardson, a famous actor. Derek later finds out that this was a bit of an "audition" to be Brent's live-in lover, a job he can't afford not to accept. Meanwhile, Derek's best friend and former co-worker, Juan, gets a job as a houseboy for a Hollywood power couple, and ends up having sex with the husband.

Derek finds that life as Brent Richardson's live-in lover can be rather draining, even when Brent is out of town for some time on a movie shoot, as Tom informs Derek that Brent expects him to "entertain" his many friends and acquaintances in a similar manner. Although the pay is great, Derek becomes physically and emotionally tired of the pace, and has the idea to "outsource" some of the other encounters to paid escorts he chooses and pays directly. What Derek doesn't realize is that this activity makes him noticed by a notorious and dangerous "panderer for the stars," who considers him competition and threatens to ruin him financially and physically. It's not until a climatic scene near the end of the book that we learn the true source of that threat, and Brent learns that not everyone he has encountered has been completely honest with him.

It's a vividly wicked and scintillating story which, although fiction, seems quite believeable as giving a look at what likely does exist in Hollywood, at some level. The explicitly (safe) sexual content does not seem out of place, considering the story is primarily about the interactions between those selling sex and buying it, though it also enforces the importance of honesty and loyalty in any relationship. I've read and enjoyed Tyler's three previous full-length novels ("Gay Blades," "Hell House" and "Tricks of the Trade"), as well as his three short stories in recent Kennsington compilations, and I definitely consider this one the best written and most enjoyable of the bunch.