Doubling Up by Paul Verity

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Doubling Up is not my usual choice of reading, meaning that is not a romance, but it’s for sure a novel dealing with being gay in contemporary society. Matt Durant is apparently from the right side of society, an high-executive professional, a lawyer, you would think that being gay should not be a problem for him, but nevertheless, at 28 is still in the closet, right out from a relationship with a woman that was more for convenience than love. Matt is struggling with what is probably the most important decision of his life, and when he finally takes his life in hands and does something, is also the night when his apparently comfortable life takes a turn for wrong. Matt is tried for murder and convicted. Matt has lost everything, but maybe it’s when he finds everything?

Doubling Up is a classical trial/procedural novel, if you have to stay to the author’s bio, he is a practicing lawyer, and indeed, the part related to the preparation and trial itself is probably the best one. The author also knows about the risk that homophobia seeps in the layers of justice; this side of the novel is not overplayed, making it too emotional to be true, it’s instead dealt with an aseptic way, making it realistic, during the evolution but also in the end.

The ending is also something that maybe will let some readers hanging, but it’s indeed very true to all the novel. It’s not a cataclysm, it’s not the novelization of the true, it’s more what probably happens in most cases, waiting for years for the right resolution of a trial.

Amazon: Doubling Up
Amazon Kindle: Doubling Up
Paperback: 218 pages
Publisher: lulu.com (April 14, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0557697522
ISBN-13: 978-0557697526

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