Hold Tight

A Novel

By: Christopher Bram

Narrated by: Robert Black

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

A World War II sailor works in a New York City brothel - for his country. After being arrested in a gay brothel in New York during a raid, Seaman Second Class Hank Fayette doesn't understand why his homosexual activities are grounds for imprisonment. The brothel is rumored to be a hangout for Nazi spies and the Navy forces Hank to go undercover as a prostitute.

They hope to use clandestine sexuality to retrieve clandestine intelligence. However, after Hank becomes friendly with a black teenager named Juke, nothing seems to go as planned. Hold Tight is a World War II thriller set in the Big Band era, a world where sexuality and race can be equally dangerous.

©1988 Christopher Bram (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Much better than most gay novels

I have read a few Christopher Bram novels and have enjoyed all of them immensely. Hold Tight was no exception. It is very well written, very suspenseful, with just enough eroticism thrown in to create a good balance. It is well preformed and a pleasure to listen to.

Excellent book with an Excellent reader!

_Hold Tight_ by Christopher Bram receives five stars from me. It was an audiobook and took me by surprise by both the book and the reader. Both gave me wow moments.

Here's the story: I did a search for gay spy novels and I found this listed and bought it on Audible. I promptly forgot about doing that search and forgot about the topic of this novel. After listening to something else, I pick this from my list without remember what was the topic. I was enthralled, on the edge of my seat because of the tension, and the characters.

One theme Bram seemed to be working with was perceived intelligence. Through out the novel mention of Hank's intelligence is discussed. It is believed he's a bit of a simpleton. Some of this belief is on assumptions about Hank. Assumptions is another theme I loved. Anyway, in contrast another character who is wealthy, educated at university, is thought he should be smart and assumed he wouldn't be as stupid to do what Hank reported as doing. I loved the contrast between Hank and Rice that Bram write so wonderfully.

That's just one theme I liked. There were others. Willingness to compromise one's values for a greater good, Assumptions and how assumptions mislead us (in fact one fatal assumption is made based on a person's involvement in a particular group--not a spoiler).

Characters are also solid and enjoyable.

However, something that was incredulity strong in this audio book was the reader--Robert Black. He's interpretation of the text was excellent. He had good voices that were interesting to hear, his neutral narrator voice was fantastic. I enjoyed his reading very much. I'd like to see more book read by him and there are some already, but I'm not sure they are good fits for me. Black read spy triller very well.

Recommend: yes.