Bath Haus: A Thriller

“The fire in my chest erupts as something buckles in my throat. My face fevers, and my cheekbones might pop out and fall to the floor.“Hands and arms, legs and torso, I shake. Tremble with fear and muscles tensing unnaturally. A dollop of saliva gathers on my bottom lip and drops to my sneakers. Kristian’s feet are behind mine. His toes whiten as he leverages his weight against the floor tiles. Onto me.“There’s no one to turn to. No one can help. Even if there were, I can’t reach out. I’m in a hidden nook within a hidden world where anonymity’s the whole point. Anonymity breeds apathy. When you’re anonymous, no one cares to save you.”Some couples pull off living together for a lifetime. Many (most?) do not. Part of the key to success appears to be trust and being open with each other. Clearly, such is not the case between Dr. Nathan Klein and his younger, twenty-six-year partner, Oliver Park. Unmarried, the two have “numbed” their way through hour after hour, day after day, and year after year. Oliver, in particular, has secretly been responsible for “boundaries broken, lines scuttled, thresholds crossed… growing more brazen… with each passing day,” all of which he keeps secret from Nathan. The night he enters a bath house and agrees to have sex with an attractive, “muscular and svelte,” almost silent, mysterious stranger is Oliver’s worst transgression yet and it almost brings a brutal, violent end to his life. To cover for the ghastly, clearly definable bruises he receives around his neck in a dark, dingy, dirty room meant for only one thing, murder not being one of them, Oliver does what he has done his entire life when in trouble—he lies.BATH HAUS (2021; 320 pp.) is the second novel by P. J. (Philip) Vernon.Although Vernon never abandons the emphasis on the relationship between Nathan and Oliver, BATH HAUS quickly evolves into a fast-moving thriller as Oliver finds himself being stalked by his would-be killer. Desperate, fearing the loss of everything he holds dear in life, Oliver descends deeper and deeper into an abyss of deceit and furtiveness, finding he has “so little” in his “control” with “so many ways” to make everything worse with one irresponsible, poorly thought-out act after another.Vernon’s storytelling is spectacular, grabbing the reader by the throat and never letting go. He begins the book with a definition of asphyxia: “A lack of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide in the body that results in unconsciousness and, within four to six minutes, death.” He adds that “clinical asphyxia is divided into five stages” and he uses each of those five stages as dividing portions of the ever-intensifying dangers and complexities to be found in the novel.The author vacillates between Oliver and Nathan’s point of view as well as providing flashbacks to both of their earlier lives. Both have troubled pasts which refuse to stay buried and pursue them, in much different ways, into the present. For Nathan, who is ten years older than Oliver, it is a problematic relationship with his wealthy parents, especially his domineering mother who despises Oliver. Oliver too, coming from rural Indiana, has an unsettled past with his parents, but also a history of drug abuse and addiction as well as a relationship he walked away from with a man who is both callous and unforgiving. Readers, through flashbacks as well as ever increasing revelations in the present, are bound to conclude Nathan and Oliver not only love each other and at times are a perfectly normal couple with different needs at times, but there exists a taxing co-dependency between the two.Although their love for each other and their relationship is quickly revealed to be complicated, Nathan and Oliver are people the reader will find themselves caring about and wishing the best. Both have strengths and weaknesses which readers are likely to identify within themselves. Oliver’s stalker, however, is a pernicious, resourceful, untiring, lurid nightmare on legs out for revenge who appears to know no limits. Detective-Sergeant Rachel Henning is an exceptionally well-drawn character, as insightful as she is caring, honest and open while yet playing things close to her chest. She is the kind of law enforcement individual any person would hope to have on their side. Vernon’s lesser characters are equally realistic and diverse.Vernon’s writing style is skilled and captivating. An occasional, intentional incomplete sentence is striking and a kind of “pay attention” indicator from the author to his audience. Throughout BATH HAUS, Vernon brilliantly drops a word, a phrase, or a sentence which appears to be innocuous, but is often a significant disclosure. It is all a part of what makes reading BATH HAUS so highly entertaining—that and the ever-increasing suspense, inexplicable and treacherous happenings, deceptions, threats, ominous games of cat and mouse, sometimes seemingly out-of-character goings-on, “red herrings,” and twists on scale with an Alfred Hitchcock or Agatha Christie thriller on steroids.By time BATH HAUS reaches the fifth and final stage of asphyxia: “Terminal Respiration—Cardiac arrest. Clinical death.” pieces of the puzzle slowly and grotesquely fall in place. Readers, filled with suspicions, often have the rug pulled out from under them, and will be both eager and dreading the final outcome. Two things are clear: evil exists on many levels from many sources and Vernon is not writing a fairy tale. Regardless of where he leads the reader at times, the author stays the course providing a stunning conclusion to a novel, the excellence of which is almost beyond words.

A gripping, sexy, disturbing thriller. Oliver should be happy with Nathan - but he's an addict in recovery on so many levels. Oliver is five years free of pills, but he still has commitment issues, fidelity issues, and serious self-esteem problems. Nathan is successful, a surgeon no less, from an impossibly wealthy family, living in a gorgeous Georgetown house.When Nathan is out of town, Oliver sneaks off to a bathhouse for a carefree evening of nameless sex, but gets way more than he imagined. Kristian is icy Nordic hot, and likes to play rough, just like Oliver does. But things get out of hand, and....I can't tell you any more. At first, I wasn't sure I could make it through this book. Both Oliver and Nathan are frankly pretty off-putting at the outset. Nathan's a selfish jerk, and Oliver's an ocean of insecurity and neediness. But the spiral of events that follows Oliver's initial transgression turns into a classic taut thriller. Hookup apps, trust issues, alcoholic abuse, and friends willing to cross lines of propriety. It's a gay pot-boiler, and impossible to resist. I read the whole thing in about two days.It's more than a bit raunchy, but that's part of the dangerous allure. Who's betraying whom?A book that literally grabs you by the throat. Not necessarily for the faint of ... breath.

Wow. Am I glad I took the plunge on this one! This book was sexy, smart and had me guessing to the end. I thought I had it figured out part way through, and so smugly started dancing in my seat at the end because I thought I got it right, only to be smacked across the face with the truth. Damn. 😣 The pacing was on point. The characters were complex. Add in a touch of steam?! Double damn. 😅Thrillers are so difficult to review because I don’t want to give a single.thing.away. Just know, I will recommend this book to anyone and everyone that enjoys this genre (and even those that don’t 😉). I can’t wait for PJ Vernon to write more. His writing style is a thing of beauty!

This was one of those reads where I really liked some bits and didn’t others. Hence the rather limp, unsatisfactory 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4 for effort).At first, I was immersed and keen to get back to it, the main characters flawed and strong, the pace rapid. It was breathless and a tiny bit sexy. The story succeeded as a thriller because it made me want to stay with it. The setting was vibrant and evocative - a monied gay couple and their life. The author paints a picture of a complex, possibly toxic, relationship where power, control, money, and lack of communication are all insidious components.But the last third of the book I started to get a bit fed up. I guessed the ending. A little twist was shoved in just before but yeah. No surprise.I wonder if a stronger book would have come about if it hadn’t been a “whodunnit” thriller but a purely character-driven thriller. By which I mean the villain would be known from the start, but the character machinations would be the driver. Sort of like Muriel Spark used to do. Tell us the end, then let us work out how we got there. I felt it was trying to do both - whodunnit and character - and it was too much.Related note on “too much”. Too many similes and metaphors, goddammit. Space them out a bit! The author is great on the visceral, but we don’t need to have every feeling or experience given a tangled metaphor to describe it. It’s counterproductive for the reader. Hold back sometimes.These dev. ed. and style issues should really have been picked up by an editor. Perhaps they were. I don’t think they’re mortal sins, though. They can be smoothed out and improved on in Vernon’s future books, which I will certainly give a go.I didn’t hate this book by any means. I particularly liked the musical references (any book citing the magnificent Ace of Base gets my vote). With the issues above resolved, it would be excellent.

I could say so much about bath haus but the best advice I can give is to read it! You will not be disappointed, by far one of the best thrillers I have read.

Wow! The twists and turns! I could see this as a Netflix series! Cliffhangers aplenty.Finally a real book worth its hype!

This book was purchased on a whim to read more lgbt themed literature. I was hooked after the first chapter. It was such a great read. It had tension at times It had me second guessing what I read. Thoroughly enjoyed it

A complete page-turner with well crafted characters.