by Joe Cosentino
Details at the end of the post on how to enter to win an audible copy of the first book in this series and a link to order Drama Pan from Amazon.
I always loved the story of Peter Pan, the boy who could dance with his own shadow, fly, save mermaids and Native American princesses, and protect his band of lost boys from pirates. I’ve read the original J.M. Barre play countless times, and each theatrical, film, and television version has delighted me. So, after writing eleven popular Nicky and Noah cozy comedy mystery MM novels, I decided the twelfth novel would center around a very unusual production of Peter Pan.
In Drama Pan, the merry theatrical crew at Treemeadow College create their own musical version of Peter Pan entitled, Every Fairy Needs a Big Hook! Hunky and hilarious Nicky Abbondanza, Professor of Play Directing, does double duty (Try saying that three times fast wearing dentures) as Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. Nicky’s loving and loyal husband Noah gets the title role of Peter Pan. Their witty and wild best friends Martin Anderson, Theatre Department Chair, and his husband Ruben camp it up as a tiger of a Tiger Lily and swarmy Smee the pirate respectively. Nicky and Noah’s stagestruck son Taavi tries to steal the show as Michael Darling, and Martin and Ruben’s cocky son holds his own as John Darling. Martin’s sassy secretary Shayla plays Mrs. Darling, and Nicky’s long-suffering detective Manuello hits the ground as Nana and the Crocodile. 
Nicky has his hook full as technical dress rehearsals for the show get off to a start more rocky than Captain Hook’s boat. Taavi and Ty fall unrequitedly in love with the same person. Graduate assistant and technical director Jax Jun insists the play violates his “religious freedom.” Santino Thirio, senior theatre major and stage manager, pumps his muscles while pumping others to invest in his dream to become a producer. Twink Tripp Taleb, the sophomore theatre major playing Tinker Bell, has his fairy dust aimed at Santino. Oscar Romero, tall and brawny sophomore theatre major with the loud singing voice playing the Merman, has his fins in the water over Tripp. All of the actors are exasperated over the avant-garde technical aspects of the show, none more than Tiara Moore, junior theatre major playing Wendy.
Enter the belligerent Couture family of avant-garde technical designers as guest artists. In no time the Coutures are hung out to dry by a mass murderer. For the twelfth time, our thick as thieves thespians (Try saying that three times fast while eating peanut butter) Nicky and Noah use their drama skills, including playing outrageous characters, to catch the killer before they get thrown to the crocodiles.
For those of you who haven’t yet ventured to the land of Nicky and Noah (and you should!), it’s a gay cozy mystery comedy series; meaning the setting is warm and cozy, the clues and murders (and laughs) come fast and furious, and there are enough plot twists and turns and a surprise ending to keep the pages turning (as Nicky would say) “faster than a call boy at a Republican convention.” At the center is the touching relationship between Professor of Play Directing Nicky Abbondanza and Associate Professor of Acting Noah Oliver. We watch them go from courting to marrying to adopting a child, all the while head over heels in love with each other (as we fall in love with them). Reviewers called the series “hysterically funny farce,” “Murder She Wrote meets Hart to Hart meets The Hardy Boys,” and “captivating whodunits.” One reviewer wrote they are the funniest books she’s ever read! Another said I’m “a master storyteller.” Who am I to argue?
In Drama Queen (Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for Favorite LGBT Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Novel of the Year) Nicky directs the school play at Treemeadow College—which is named after its gay founders, Tree and Meadow. Theatre professors drops like stage curtains, and Nicky and Noah have to use their theatre skills, including impersonating other people, to figure out whodunit. The following novels bring more cases for the thespians to solve: Drama Muscle, Drama Luau, Drama Detective, Drama Fraternity, Drama Castle, Drama Dance, Drama Faerie, Drama Runway, and Drama Christmas.
As a past professional actor and current college theatre professor/department chair, I know first-hand the hysterically funny antics, sweet romance, and captivating mystery in the worlds of theatre and academia. The Nicky and Noah mysteries are full of them! I know you’ll laugh, cry, feel romantic, and love delving into this crackling new mystery with more plot twists and turns than a congressional hearing to impeach a treasonous ex-president.
I’m more excited than a Republican governor taking Democrats off the voter rolls to share this twelfth novel in the series with you. So take your seats and throw the fairy dust. The stage lights are coming up in Neverland on a lad who won’t grow up without Viagra, a pirate with a huge hook, a twink called Tink, a Lily who’s a tiger, a Merman perplexed at what’s between his legs, and murder!
And I love to hear from readers. So drop me a line. I’ll share it with Nicky and Noah! www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com.
Drama Pan (the 12th Nicky and Noah mystery)
a comedy/mystery/romance novel by JOE COSENTINO
https://mybook.to/DramaPan
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1077476
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/drama-pan-a-nicky-and-noah-mystery
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drama-pan-joe-cosentino/1139151966?ean=2940164862060
It’s spring break at Treemeadow College, and Theatre professors and spouses Nicky Abbondanza and Noah Oliver, their best friends Martin and Ruben, and their sons Taavi and Ty are sprinkling on the fairy dust in an original musical extravaganza of Peter Pan entitled Every Fairy Needs a Big Hook! Pirates shout more than “Yo, ho!” when a family of visiting technical designers, the Coutures, drop like yesterday’s fashions. Once again, our favorite thespians will need to use their drama skills to catch the killer before they get the hook. You will be applauding and shouting Bravo for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, sidesplittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining twelfth novel in this delightful series. So take your seats and believe in fairies. The stage lights are coming up in Neverland on a lad who won’t grow up without Viagra, a pirate with quite the hook, a twink called Tink, a Lily who’s a tiger, a Merman surprised at what’s between his legs, and murder!
Giveaway: Post a comment about why you love a gay cozy mystery. The one that tinkers our bell the most will win a complimentary audiobook of Drama Queen, the first Nicky and Noah mystery novel, by Joe Cosentino, performed by Michael Gilboe. WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN ON JUNE 12, 2021. http://www.audible.com/pd/B012I834LS/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-039908&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_039908_rh_us
Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Be sure to check out our new mystery podcast too with mystery short stories, and first chapters read by local actors. A new episode went up this week.
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We have a winner!