A Murder Most Camp

 

A Murder Most Camp is a b*tchy, campy, martini-fueled cozy mystery by Nicolas DiDomizio. Released 28th April 2026 by Sourcebooks on their Poisoned Pen Press imprint it's 368 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.

Utterly out of touch, spoiled nepo baby's father decides to "teach him a lesson about life" by giving him a directive to "do good" before his 30th birthday, or miss having unfettered access to his full inheritance. There's a very (very!) campy Scooby-Do vibe to the whole long-ago-cold-case disappearance, and in this case the "gang" of sidekicks are 12 year olds he's supposed to be engaging in learning activities. 

Lots of character development arcs here, very very weird dysfunctional family dynamics, and lots of fun poked at a spoiled out of touch rich gay queen thrust into lots of antithetical situations (timed showers! skincare routines disrupted! no dirty martinis by the pool! no pool!!)... The author seems incapable of passing up any stereotypical gay trope, but the whole is tongue in cheek (sometimes too much), but overall entertaining.

The mystery itself, isn't. The setup is so completely over-the-top outlandish and silly that readers will need a prodigious load of suspension of disbelief. The big twist/reveal at the climax and denouement won't be a huge surprise for most readers (but was moderately delicious anyhow). 

That being said, it -is- cute and entertaining. Props to the author for a nice bi-positive character representation; that's a bit of a unicorn in gay fiction. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 33 minutes and is capably read by Mark Sanderlin. He has a well modulated, professionally trained neutral East Coast US accent for the read, and does a decent job of delineating the multitude of disparate voices, female, male (very gay male, and straight), and children  (without making it too saccharine or awful). Sound and production quality are very high throughout the read.

Four stars. It would be a good choice for public or home library acquisition, or possibly a buddy read. Light content warnings for mild M/M spicy scenes. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.