This was a decent entry in the "the fantastic in our universe" type of mystery, and so much had a great gothic feel, but the book failed on the whole by having the main character obsessing sexually over another character. Yes, the pair were both men, and no that had nothing to do with my feeling of this ruining the book-- I'd have hated it as much if it were a pair of women or a man and woman pairing. Basically, you had a great story interrupted every few pages by the main character desperately wanting to have sex with the other character, using highly graphic sexual fantasies which just destroyed the great atmosphere the author had built for the story. The end was also a huge disappointment-- you never learned what was the thing haunting the house, or how it would be taken care of, as that is something "to be continued" in the second book which I will never read.