Drama Muscle

A Nicky and Noah Mystery

By: Joe Cosentino

Narrated by: Chip Hurley

It could be lights out for college theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza. With dead bodybuilders popping up on campus, Nicky, and his favorite colleague/life partner Noah Oliver, must use their drama skills to figure out who is taking down pumped up musclemen in the Physical Education building before it is curtain down for Nicky and Noah. Complicating matters is a visit from Noah's parents from Wisconsin, and Nicky's suspicion that Noah may be hiding more than a cut, smooth body.

You will be applauding and shouting "bravo" for Joe Cosentino's fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining second novel in this delightful series. Curtain up and weights up!

©2016 Joe Cosentino (P)2017 Joe Cosentino

Fun mystery that will keep you listening

I loved this book when I read it, and loved it even more when listening to it with Chip Hurley's narration.

Joe Cosentino has such a unique and refreshing way of melding interesting characters, hysterical humor, and an intriguing mystery plot. It is over-the-top farce, yet grounded enough to make you care about the people and the situation. Settled in their relationship (or are they?), Nicky and Noah now try to solve the mystery of who is murdering the students and faculty in the PE department. Nicky is directing the body building competition, giving it an air of theatricality, and one by one, the cast keeps shrinking (and so does the faculty). My favorite characters were Noah's parents, who are hysterical. The mystery plot really adds up to a satisfying ending. Though I didn't guess it until very close to the end, the clues were all there -- just cleverly disguised with misdirection.

Chip Hurley does a masterful job at creating the colorful cast of characters, and capturing the humor in the story. It really brings the book to life. I didn't want to put it down!

Funny and enoyable

What a fun book! This is a unique combination of humor, mystery, and romance, with a clever style that had me hooked. The muscle contest with all the personalities was hysterical. The mystery was clever. The romance was touching. The narrator does an excellent job at bringing the characters and the narration to life.

Comedy, mystery, and romance all in one!

What did you love best about Drama Muscle?

I love the humor.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the mystery but I also enjoyed when Noah's parents came to visit, and Noah's mom is always sending pictures to her friend and comparing them to her friend's gay son. It's hilarious.

What about Chip Hurley’s performance did you like?

I Liked Chip's performance. I think he captured Nickey quite well though I imagined Noah and Martin more reversed in their speech.
I think Chip did a good job narrating and adding humor where it fit in.

Who was the most memorable character of Drama Muscle and why?

Nickey. I love how Nickey is always trying to snoop around and solve a mystery.

Any additional comments?

Drama Muscle is book two In the Nickey and Noah Mysteries. The stories stand alone fairly well, but I think you would enjoy it better if you read them in order to get to know more about them.
Drama Muscle is about Nickey and Noah stepping in to help stage the Muscle competition in Tree Meadow college where they work. Suddenly the students and teachers start dropping dead, and Nickey is back to trying to solve the mystery and clear his name as he is the one always finding the bodies.
If you haven't read any of this series and love a good laugh and cozy mystery you should really pick this up. The story is chock full of great characters, humor and mystery plus the romance between Nicky and Noah. I highly recommend this book and series!

Great listening fun

I read the book and loved it, so I thought it would be like having my own inside man, knowing exactly what to expect with no surprises, right? WRONG. The surprise was Chip Hurley.
He was just so phenomenally good in giving me the ultimate connection that he delivered when following Nicky and Noah in their sleuthing exploits.
So how do you explain the audio version of the marvellous Drama Muscle by Joe Cosentino??? Well. I think saying that it's a clever and very imaginative mystery frolic, with Nicky and Noah being the main "frolicers" (try saying that 3 times fast) is a very good start.
It was a laugh-a-thong from start to finish and as I have already stated, Chip Hurley deserves full credit for making it so. His narration, with the clever use of various vocal pitches was masterful and his comic timing spot-on. He went from a warm to a strident tone with such ease, I was in awe and made it a joy to listen too. You get so lost in the storyline that you forget that it's only one narrator playing all the parts.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way he portrayed Nicky and Noah but for me, his portrayal of the arrogant/vainglorious Van Granite stole the show.
Highly recommended.

Great mystery

Narration: The narrator for Drama Muscle wasn’t the same one from the first book, and I hadn’t heard anything else from him before. However, I think he did a great job narrating. He really allowed the humor that the author writes with to come through in his narration.

Story: I am a pretty big fan of gay mysteries or mysteries that drive a plot in m/m romance. As far as the mystery writing, I think this author did a great job. Nicky and Noah make up the main couple of the story but there are other pairings among the supporting characters. There is sex but it’s not explicit so I really feel this story lends itself to gay fiction and less romance.

The story is told from Nicky’s viewpoint and the humor is very tongue in cheek. I don’t know if the author writes that way in all his books or if it is a trademark of Nicky’s personality. Sometimes he could come off as obtuse, but other times he was very observant. Noah is a character I really like, but in this book I had some concerns with his commitment to Nicky. There were moments that I was worried about the main characters. I did like some of the comical aspects but for me the author used too many similes, especially ones involving priests and altar boys. On a purely personal level I don’t care for that kind of humor, but others might very well enjoy it.

Even though Nicky and Noah work in the college drama department, they end up helping the athletic department with the annual body building competition to add more flair to the event. When one of the competitors ends up dead, the suspects are numerous. The students and mentors in the program all have quite a few sketchy dealings. Affairs are being had and some are playing favorites. The only way to eliminate some of the suspects is when they are found as dead as the first victim. I had my suspicions and really enjoyed solving the crime alongside Nicky and Noah.

The mystery in this story was the highlight for me. I also liked Nicky and Noah working through problems that arose for them in this book. The humor was hit or miss but overall with the narration, I really enjoyed listening. I would recommend the story especially to others who enjoy sleuthing in their books.

8/10 Pots of Gold (80% Recommended) – Compares to 4/5 Stars

An audio code was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Over-the-top sleuthing in the name of justice!

Drama Muscle delivers even more of the over-the-top and hysterical sleuthing we'd expect from college theater professors Nicky and Noah. Tree Meadow College's annual bodybuilding competition is getting some extra beef this year in the way of dramatic flair, courtesy of the theater department. But when the contestants start dropping faster than you can say "deadlift", Nicky and Noah must figure out who has it out for the entire phys-ed department. This book is heavy on puns, laugh-out-loud metaphors, and some seriously obvious voyeurism in the name of justice. Funny story and great narration!

Repetitive everything

An editor was sorely lacking. Also it better than the character PJ from the first book but the way the student talk is so frustrating. There is plenty of slang and jargon amount college students but most are well spoken, not using filler words to the point of being unintelligible and definitely able to shut it off when it’s serious time. But the worst is that so very many of the metaphors were televangelist centered, I enjoy the general theme of religious humor as metaphors but the word televangelist stands out too much to use that often.
Poor handling of what was clearly sexual harassment of the female student too. Was I supposed to be seriously disappointed with the main character? Because I was, she was saying no, it was clear.