While it is sometimes illogical and often feels like a Lifetime melodrama for gay men, the pages of P.J. Vernon's Bath Haus fly by at warp speed and delivers on the promise of its subtitle: A Thriller. Bath Haus thrills and chills, even when you want to throttle its chief protagonist, Oliver, for being so stupid. 

Pretty-boy Oliver is a 20-something year old recovering addict living in grand Georgetown splendor with his older (by 10 years), wealthier and more stable lover/benefactor, Nathan, a trauma surgeon who has fallen--hopelessly--in love with this wayward child of a broken home, broken dreams and broken lives. For his part, Oliver, determined to do right by Nathan, teeters constantly on the edge, fighting his urges to return to the drugs that almost took his life before Nathan entered it and saved him from himself. Oliver appreciates and loves Nathan as his knight-in-shining-armor, yet he also resents Nathan's need to monitor his comings and goings, to control him. One night, with Nathan out of town at a medical conference, Oliver gives in to more carnal urges, and makes the fateful decision to visit a bathhouse. And this is where the book actually begins. 

A nervous Oliver enters the establishment located in a seedy area of D.C. He intends to spend only an hour, knowing that an anxious Nathan will soon be calling to check up on him. Nathan demands monogamy and a grateful Oliver has always complied with Nathan's wishes. Until this one night when Oliver visits the bathhouse and everything from that point on goes completely haywire. After meeting a handsome Scandinavian at the club's bar, Oliver agrees to accompany the man back to his room. As things start to get hot and heavy, Oliver suddenly finds himself pinioned against a hard wall while strong, lethal hands fasten tightly around his throat. Oliver's miraculous escape only serves to make his adversary more determined to find him and finish the job he started. With no friends of his own and no one to confide in (certainly not Nathan), Oliver's life unravels as he proceeds to make a series of extremely bad decisions that will put him--and Nathan and their dog, Tilly--ever closer to a lurking, malignant presence that wants what it wants and will stop at nothing to achieve its goal. Also at stake: Oliver's longstanding sobriety that is already hanging by a thread, and the lifestyle that Nathan's affluence has provided for him. 

I've seen some reviewers refer to Bath Haus as an erotic thriller, but I found the book to be anything but erotic. Despite its suggestive title and a few brief, PG-adjacent bedroom moments, the majority of (not particularly explicit) sex in the book is steeped in fear, madness and violence. Not erotic. As characters with questionable motives--Nathan's spiteful psychoanalyst mother and uber-rich father, his smarmy, Capitol Hill staffer/best friend, Oliver's abusive ex-lover--move in and out of Oliver's and Nathan's orbits, the noose tightens when a local detective starts looking more closely at Oliver and his past as an addict and accomplished liar. Terrified that Nathan might discover what transpired during that out-of-town conference, Oliver confesses all--or, at least, some--to the female cop investigating his case. But, as things progress, Oliver finally realizes that there are no safe havens and his unwillingness to be completely honest--with Nathan, the detective or himself--may be his final undoing.  

There are a few too many coincidences and unbelievable plot developments in Bath Haus for my liking, and, at times, characters behave in ways that defy comprehension. Even so, none of this undermined my enjoyment of the book. Bath Haus is a twisted, suspenseful, page-turner with an ending that won't surprise Lifetime movie fans but is satisfying nonetheless.