REVIEW: Playing Dead

PLAYING DEAD by Robert Buckley

Coming Together Tabooty Series, 2012

If you've read any of Robert Buckley's erotic fiction, you'll know that he's a dedicated proponent of the sexual creed, “Anything goes – as long as it's consensual”. That philosophy is stretched to the limit in Mr. Buckley's amusing and arousing Tabooty tale, Playing Dead.

Mike Garner's a former investigative journalist who loses his job when a sleazeball media mogul buys his rag. To make ends meet, Mike signs on with his former colleague Zeke (who quit the paper day the change of ownership was announced) working as a driver for Zeke's limo service. Zeke's business is booming. He provides discreet, customized transportation to individuals with unusual sexual desires, taking them to safe locations where they can indulge their fantasies. Mike ends up carting around adult infants, furries, rubber duckies, “schoolgirls” headed for an encounter with their “headmasters”, willing cuckolds, Druids – pretty much every kink imaginable. His tolerance nearly snaps, though, on the night he and Zeke are called to drive a refrigerated hearse full of what appear to be dead bodies.

I don't want to spoil the fun by revealing how the plot works out, though I guess I can share the fact that the evil tycoon and his female sidekick get what they deserve and Mike discovers that even the oddest fetishes can be a turn on under the right conditions.

Playing Dead is plenty sexy, but the real payoff in this story is Mr. Buckley's brilliant dialogue and arch social commentary. If you're familiar with his work, you know you can expect a wry laugh or two along with the bonking. If not – well, you're in for a treat.

All proceeds from the Tabooty series benefit the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, an organization that works for acceptance of alternative sexual lifestyles such as BDSM and polyamory. It's difficult to imagine a more appropriate beneficiary for Playing Dead.