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A Bob & Marcus Mystery #2
Fault Line
Newly minted 25-year-old lawyer Bob Abramson joins the DA's office in San Diego and soon finds himself leading an investigation into the politically charged murder of the mayor's husband, a powerful, wealthy developer with far too many secrets for his wife's political ambitions.
Bob's first encounter with murder occurred four years previously, when his roommate, the scion of an old Boston family, was murdered and the case was investigated by the victim's Harvard professor, Marcus George. As the investigation developed, Bob and Marcus, naturally, fell in love.
Now, Bob has completed law school and landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney in San Diego, and Marcus has accepted a new position at UC San Diego. As they settle in to their new home, they're thrust into the investigation and its political ramification, and they find that a gay subculture roils much of southern California's placidly straight surface.
Bob's first encounter with murder occurred four years previously, when his roommate, the scion of an old Boston family, was murdered and the case was investigated by the victim's Harvard professor, Marcus George. As the investigation developed, Bob and Marcus, naturally, fell in love.
Now, Bob has completed law school and landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney in San Diego, and Marcus has accepted a new position at UC San Diego. As they settle in to their new home, they're thrust into the investigation and its political ramification, and they find that a gay subculture roils much of southern California's placidly straight surface.
260 pages, Paperback
Published July 22, 2025
3 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
H.N. Hirsch
8 books8 followersH N Hirsch was a professor of political science for 40 years. When he retired, he realized a lifetime ambition to write mystery novels. The first, "Shade," was published in 2022. The sequel, "Fault Line," will be published June 1, 2023.
Visit his website at scribble-and-scratch.com
Visit his website at scribble-and-scratch.com
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 27, 2024
Check out all my reviews at: https://www.avonnalvesgenres.com
FAULT LINE (A Bob & Marcus Mystery Book #2) by H.N. Hirsch is a murder mystery that is intricately plotted with many motives and suspects, political pitfalls, and a realistic look back at the gay scene and subculture in 1980’s California. Professor Marcus George, who has accepted a position at UCSD, and Bob Abramson, who has been newly hired to the San Diego DA’s office, have relocated to the West Coast and end up once again embroiled in a murder mystery. This book in the series can easily be read as a standalone.
Bob Abramson has graduated law school and as he studies for his bar exam, he is also working for the San Diego DA’s office and asked to assist on a politically charged investigation into the violent death of the husband of the mayor of San Diego. While Bob is excited to be working in the DA’s office, he soon discovers he may not be able to trust the supposed “good guys”. The political pitfalls are many and add in the whispered questions about the victim’s sexuality and Bob is quickly discovering that sunny California has plenty of secrets in the shadows and is questioning his and Marcus’s move.
I found myself immersed in this murder mystery and could not put it down. Bob and Marcus are a wonderful couple still finding their way as a committed gay couple in the 1980s. While Marcus is settled in his profession, Bob is now having second thoughts, even as he for now follows his family’s tradition of practicing law. The atmospheric descriptions of the gay subculture in the 1980’s is well written and realistic. All the secondary characters, family, friends, and suspects are fully developed and believable.
The mystery plot is more police procedural than amateur sleuth style with the detectives having to have Bob and/or the Asst. DA present during all interviews due to the sensitive political nature of the murder. There are plenty of red herrings and twists that kept me guessing to the end.
I highly recommend this LGBTQ murder mystery, and I am looking forward to following more of Bob and Marcus’s adventures in the future.
FAULT LINE (A Bob & Marcus Mystery Book #2) by H.N. Hirsch is a murder mystery that is intricately plotted with many motives and suspects, political pitfalls, and a realistic look back at the gay scene and subculture in 1980’s California. Professor Marcus George, who has accepted a position at UCSD, and Bob Abramson, who has been newly hired to the San Diego DA’s office, have relocated to the West Coast and end up once again embroiled in a murder mystery. This book in the series can easily be read as a standalone.
Bob Abramson has graduated law school and as he studies for his bar exam, he is also working for the San Diego DA’s office and asked to assist on a politically charged investigation into the violent death of the husband of the mayor of San Diego. While Bob is excited to be working in the DA’s office, he soon discovers he may not be able to trust the supposed “good guys”. The political pitfalls are many and add in the whispered questions about the victim’s sexuality and Bob is quickly discovering that sunny California has plenty of secrets in the shadows and is questioning his and Marcus’s move.
I found myself immersed in this murder mystery and could not put it down. Bob and Marcus are a wonderful couple still finding their way as a committed gay couple in the 1980s. While Marcus is settled in his profession, Bob is now having second thoughts, even as he for now follows his family’s tradition of practicing law. The atmospheric descriptions of the gay subculture in the 1980’s is well written and realistic. All the secondary characters, family, friends, and suspects are fully developed and believable.
The mystery plot is more police procedural than amateur sleuth style with the detectives having to have Bob and/or the Asst. DA present during all interviews due to the sensitive political nature of the murder. There are plenty of red herrings and twists that kept me guessing to the end.
I highly recommend this LGBTQ murder mystery, and I am looking forward to following more of Bob and Marcus’s adventures in the future.
January 27, 2025
Fault Line (Bob and Marcus Mysteries 2)
By H.N. Hirsch
Pisgah Press, 2023
Five stars
H.N. Hirsch has created a series of murder mysteries set in the historical past—but a past which is part of my lived experience as a gay man in the first post-Stonewall generation. So it’s an odd feeling, looking backwards in time, but also feeling the immediacy of my own life resonating in his narrative.
Bob Abramson and Marcus Rivers are a young gay couple, four years into their relationship, which began in Maine in the wake of a shocking murder five years earlier. In the first book, Marcus was the accidental detective, an underpaid adjunct professor at Harvard. Bob was the victim’s roommate, ten years Marcus’s junior, and about to start Harvard Law School.
Five years down the line, we find Bob and Marcus just moving in to their new—first—house together in San Diego’s Normal Heights. They’ve just experienced their first earthquake, and the headline in their morning newspaper is about another shocking murder. This time, however, it is Bob, in his role as a brand-new Assistant District Attorney, who becomes a detective. Marcus is a newly-minted professor at UC San Diego, and still wondering at his happy relationship and the strangeness of living in California.
From my calculations, I am two years younger than Marcus, and I vividly remember the second half of the 1980s, when both of these books take place. Clearly Hirsch has firsthand experience in this period as well, because he gets it all right in terms of what it was to be an out gay couple trying to build a life—professional and personal—in Ronald Reagan’s America.
What Hirsch also gets right is a bird’s-eye view of gay life in the late 1980s, ranging from closeted executives to gay sex-workers. It’s a world still feeling the impact of Dan White’s murder of Harvey Milk in San Francisco in 1978, but drastically shaken by the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan administration’s callous treatment of the nation’s lesbian and gay citizens (there was no real concept of LGTBQ+ in 1989).
The murder is confusing and complicated, as every good murder should be. Politics and corporate ambition swirl in the background, as Bob learns what it is to work in a big urban district attorney’s office. With Bob at center stage, Marcus becomes his one-person Greek chorus, and the author gives us a clear study of a developing relationship built on notions of equality and partnership. Although I felt that Bob was a little priggish in his view of the gay world—I also saw rather a lot of myself in that perspective. Even though they are still in Connecticut, Bob’s family is present in this story, and I loved them, because they represent a precious reality of the time: a prosperous family who actively supported their gay son and his partner.
“Fault Line” is an engaging and interesting book. It’s a fun read, but for me it was also an example of the kind of historical fiction that serves as a vivid reminder of what life was like back in the last century. As 2025 and a new regime in America begins to unfold, I felt a rather strong wave of nostalgia as I read Hirsch’s narrative.
By H.N. Hirsch
Pisgah Press, 2023
Five stars
H.N. Hirsch has created a series of murder mysteries set in the historical past—but a past which is part of my lived experience as a gay man in the first post-Stonewall generation. So it’s an odd feeling, looking backwards in time, but also feeling the immediacy of my own life resonating in his narrative.
Bob Abramson and Marcus Rivers are a young gay couple, four years into their relationship, which began in Maine in the wake of a shocking murder five years earlier. In the first book, Marcus was the accidental detective, an underpaid adjunct professor at Harvard. Bob was the victim’s roommate, ten years Marcus’s junior, and about to start Harvard Law School.
Five years down the line, we find Bob and Marcus just moving in to their new—first—house together in San Diego’s Normal Heights. They’ve just experienced their first earthquake, and the headline in their morning newspaper is about another shocking murder. This time, however, it is Bob, in his role as a brand-new Assistant District Attorney, who becomes a detective. Marcus is a newly-minted professor at UC San Diego, and still wondering at his happy relationship and the strangeness of living in California.
From my calculations, I am two years younger than Marcus, and I vividly remember the second half of the 1980s, when both of these books take place. Clearly Hirsch has firsthand experience in this period as well, because he gets it all right in terms of what it was to be an out gay couple trying to build a life—professional and personal—in Ronald Reagan’s America.
What Hirsch also gets right is a bird’s-eye view of gay life in the late 1980s, ranging from closeted executives to gay sex-workers. It’s a world still feeling the impact of Dan White’s murder of Harvey Milk in San Francisco in 1978, but drastically shaken by the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan administration’s callous treatment of the nation’s lesbian and gay citizens (there was no real concept of LGTBQ+ in 1989).
The murder is confusing and complicated, as every good murder should be. Politics and corporate ambition swirl in the background, as Bob learns what it is to work in a big urban district attorney’s office. With Bob at center stage, Marcus becomes his one-person Greek chorus, and the author gives us a clear study of a developing relationship built on notions of equality and partnership. Although I felt that Bob was a little priggish in his view of the gay world—I also saw rather a lot of myself in that perspective. Even though they are still in Connecticut, Bob’s family is present in this story, and I loved them, because they represent a precious reality of the time: a prosperous family who actively supported their gay son and his partner.
“Fault Line” is an engaging and interesting book. It’s a fun read, but for me it was also an example of the kind of historical fiction that serves as a vivid reminder of what life was like back in the last century. As 2025 and a new regime in America begins to unfold, I felt a rather strong wave of nostalgia as I read Hirsch’s narrative.
June 1, 2023
A bristling murder mystery
Ohio author H.N. Hirsch earned his degrees from Princeton and from the University of Michigan and is a political scientist, teacher and writer, currently on the faculty of Oberlin College. He blends his expertise in jurisprudence, modern political theory, gender and sexuality in his novels, especially his ongoing series the Bob & Marcus Mystery Series, of which FAULT LINE is the second volume. A suggestion of the candor of his writing is present on the opening page of this novel: ‘On his first day in California, Bob Abramson awoke to an earthquake, rain, and murder.’ A great starter!
The plot is distilled as follows: ‘Newly minted 25-year-old lawyer Bob Abramson joins the DA's office in San Diego and soon finds himself leading an investigation into the politically charged murder of the mayor's husband, a powerful, wealthy developer with far too many secrets for his wife's political ambitions. Bob's first encounter with murder occurred four years previously, when his roommate, the scion of an old Boston family, was murdered and the case was investigated by the victim's Harvard professor, Marcus George. As the investigation developed, Bob and Marcus, naturally, fell in love. Now, Bob has completed law school and landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney in San Diego, and Marcus has accepted a new position at UC San Diego. As they settle in to their new home, they're thrust into the investigation and its political ramification, and they find that a gay subculture roils much of southern California's placidly straight surface.’ Bob joins Marcus in the murder mystery and opens windows into a well-drawn LGBTQ romance, all taking place in the 80s, when AIDs and other shadows altered so many lives. Hirsch weaves his tale well, capturing Southern California ambience and the interplay of his characters cinematically. Looking forward to the next episode - RAIN - in this fine mystery series.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book
Ohio author H.N. Hirsch earned his degrees from Princeton and from the University of Michigan and is a political scientist, teacher and writer, currently on the faculty of Oberlin College. He blends his expertise in jurisprudence, modern political theory, gender and sexuality in his novels, especially his ongoing series the Bob & Marcus Mystery Series, of which FAULT LINE is the second volume. A suggestion of the candor of his writing is present on the opening page of this novel: ‘On his first day in California, Bob Abramson awoke to an earthquake, rain, and murder.’ A great starter!
The plot is distilled as follows: ‘Newly minted 25-year-old lawyer Bob Abramson joins the DA's office in San Diego and soon finds himself leading an investigation into the politically charged murder of the mayor's husband, a powerful, wealthy developer with far too many secrets for his wife's political ambitions. Bob's first encounter with murder occurred four years previously, when his roommate, the scion of an old Boston family, was murdered and the case was investigated by the victim's Harvard professor, Marcus George. As the investigation developed, Bob and Marcus, naturally, fell in love. Now, Bob has completed law school and landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney in San Diego, and Marcus has accepted a new position at UC San Diego. As they settle in to their new home, they're thrust into the investigation and its political ramification, and they find that a gay subculture roils much of southern California's placidly straight surface.’ Bob joins Marcus in the murder mystery and opens windows into a well-drawn LGBTQ romance, all taking place in the 80s, when AIDs and other shadows altered so many lives. Hirsch weaves his tale well, capturing Southern California ambience and the interplay of his characters cinematically. Looking forward to the next episode - RAIN - in this fine mystery series.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book
June 2, 2023
Written in the classic style of James Ellroy, Fault Line is a murder mystery you won't soon forget.
With a full cast of characters, a scenic setting, plus a laundry list of suspects, I couldn't stop reading until the dramatic conclusion.
Fans of L.A. Confidential will enjoy this political murder mystery.
My Rating: 5+ stars
Reviewed by: Nancy
This review first appeared: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/po...
With a full cast of characters, a scenic setting, plus a laundry list of suspects, I couldn't stop reading until the dramatic conclusion.
Fans of L.A. Confidential will enjoy this political murder mystery.
My Rating: 5+ stars
Reviewed by: Nancy
This review first appeared: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/po...
June 13, 2023
On his first day in California, and not even settled into his first job, newly-minted lawyer Bob Abramson is suddenly thrust into a murder investigation. That would be hard enough, but the investigation has serious potential political implications, so if Bob takes a false step, he may find himself ousted from his new job. He and his partner Marcus have to navigate their new lives in the Golden State while hoping the mystery doesn't tank them. This follow-up to "Shade" is a simply terrific read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews