The Book of Lies
Page 51
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition includes a foreword by Frank W. Butterfield (Nick Williams Mysteries).
Dead on Your Feet by Grant Michaels
A Stan Kraychik Mystery, Book 3 – Spring is in the air and Stan has been with his boyfriend, ballet dancer and choreographer, Rafik, for a year. Alas, jealousy rears its ugly head and Stan storms out of a dinner party given by the director of the ballet company. After crying himself to sleep, he is woken in the morning by Rafik’s phone call. Stani, there is great trouble. Max Harkey is dead.
Suspects abound. Two young ballet dancers, dating each other but both in love with a third unattainable person. The mistress of the company, whose niece was about to be the lead in Max’ next production before she fell and broke her hip. The houseboy who sends Stan’s sexual yearnings into a whole new direction. The financial backer who spends too much time at the ballet studio. Jason Sears the pianist, last seen near the original priceless music score. Toni di Natale, conductor who hangs all over Rafik whenever she is near him. And Stan’s lover, Rafik, who found the body.
Even Stan’s nemesis, the gorgeous straight cop, Lieutenant Vito Branco, wants Stan to solve this mystery. Can he do it and stay alive?
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition includes a foreword by Charles Michelson.
Mask for a Diva by Grant Michaels
A Stan Kraychik Mystery, Book 4 – Stan Kraychik, Boston hair-dresser extraordinaire, has been hired as the wig master’s assistant for the upcoming season of a local opera company. The Italian opera diva and aging soprano Marcella Ostinata, whose use of English is determined by her irritation level, will perform the lead. Before Stan heads to Europe to meet his lover’s parents, one of the actresses from the company kills herself by jumping into the path of a train. Befriending the benefactor, Stan moves into a house on the benefactor’s estate, where a very attractive deaf/mute boy takes a fancy to him. As the company heads unsteadily towards opening night, murder threatens the entire festival and Stan finds himself playing a crucial role in a deadly grand opera, performed without music, and with real weapons and killers.
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition includes a foreword by Joe Cosentino (Nicky and Noah Mysteries).
EDWARD O. PHILLIPS - Geoffry Chadwick in Montreal
Sunday’s Child by Edward O. Phillips
A Geoffry Chadwick Misadventure, Book 1 – Lawyer Geoffry Chadwick is 50, Canadian, single, gay and, after a brief struggle with a hustler who tries to shake him down, a murderer. Herein lies the device for this macabre, funny, first novel. Although Geoffry must dispose of the body – which he does by dropping off sections of it around town at night – the trauma of the murder affords him the opportunity to reminisce and ruminate: on the recent termination of his affair with a history teacher; on the not-so-recent deaths of his wife and daughter; on the alcoholism of his mother; on growing old; on being gay. The visit of a nephew and the New Year’s festivities only serve to intensify his thoughts. Although Chadwick is abrasively disdainful early on, he is fascinating when he loosens up. Phillips keeps the reader hopping with throwaway quotations from Donne and scatological references and puns.
A Books in Canada First Novel Finalist, this new edition contains a foreword by Alexander Inglis.
Buried on Sunday by Edward O. Phillips
A Geoffry Chadwick Misadventure, Book 2 – “One of the problems with weekends in the country” says Geoffry Chadwick’s genial host in Buried on Sunday, “is that people feel free to drop in unannounced.” And drop in they do. No sooner has our lovable lawyer hero, a partner in the prestigious law firm of Lyall, Pierce, Chadwick and Dawson – who just happens to be gay – settled in with a spicy Bloody Mary, than hardened criminals on the lam burst in and take Chadwick and his hosts hostage in their own beautiful home.
A tale of mystery and suspense brims with human drama, both poignant and comic: It turns out that one of the other hostages, now married, had once been Chadwick’s lover. As the hours of their forced confinement turn into days, a flood of bittersweet memories engulf Chadwick, of an affair whose painful end he could never forget, of a lover who had changed the course of his life. As the weekend moves toward its powerful denouement, Chadwick comes to terms with the road he has taken – and the quite different path, of marriage and convention, chosen by his early love.
A Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Best Novel Winner. This edition contains a contemporary interview with Phillips on reception of his work and a reminiscence of his 80th birthday celebration by Toronto author Nancy Wigston.
Sunday Best by Edward O. Phillips
A Geoffry Chadwick Misadventure, Book 3 – Geoffry Chadwick is back and this time the reluctant hero and social observer is going to a wedding - or maybe not. Geoffry’s niece, Jennifer, is about to marry Douglas, son of a prominent – or at the very least notorious – Montreal socialite, Lois Fullerton. Lois is a wealthy widow with an impressive list of discarded lovers and it looks like she’s decided Geoffry will be her next conquest. But after meeting Lois on several occasions, Chadwick discovers he is being followed. Soon a nasty knife wound – on the front tire of his car – and a nasty note thicken the plot. Has Lois masterminded a trap? Who is her suspicious, swarthy, and sexy chauffeur? And why is the bridegroom more interested in his future brother-in-law than his future bride? A lively misadventure of manners – bad manners – with just a hint of crime.
This new edition contains a tribute to Mr Phillips who passed away in May, 2020.
LEV RAPHAEL - Nick Hoffman in Michigan
Let’s Get Criminal by Lev Raphael
Paperback: 240 pgs • 978-1-951092-07-8
A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 1 – Nick Hoffman has everything he has ever wanted: a good teaching job, a nice house, and a solid relationship with his lover, Stefan Borowski, a brilliant novelist at the State University of Michigan. But when Perry Cross shows up, Nick’s peace of mind is shattered. Not only does he have to share his office with the nefarious Perry, who managed to weasel his way into a tenured position without the right qualifications, he also discovers that Perry played a destructive role in Stefan’s past. When Perry turns up dead, Nick wonders if Stefan might be involved, while the campus police force is wondering the same about Nick.
This new edition contains a foreword by the author.
The Edith Wharton Murders by Lev Raphael
Paperback: 268 pgs • 978-1-951092-22-1
A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 2 – Nick Hoffman, desperate to get tenure, has been saddled with a thankless task: coordinating a conference on Edith Wharton that will demonstrate how his department and his university supports women’s issues. There’s been widespread criticism that SUM is really the State University of Men. Problem is, he’s forced to invite two warring Wharton societies, and the conflict between rival scholars escalates from mudslinging to murder. Nick’s job and whole career are on the line unless he can help solve the case and salvage the conference.
Receiving raves in the New York Times on initial publication, this new edition contains a foreword by Gregory Ashe (Hazard and Somerset series) as well as a new introduction by the author.
JOHN MORGAN WILSON - Benjamin Justice in Los Angeles
Simple Justice by John Morgan Wilson
Paperback: 280 pgs • 978-1-951092-30-6
A Benjamin Justice Mystery, Book 1 – It’s 1994, an election year when violent crime is rampant, voters want action, and politicians smell blood. When a Latino teenager confesses to the murder of a pretty-boy cokehead outside a gay bar in L.A., the cops consider the case closed. But Benjamin Justice, a disgraced former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, sees something in the jailed boy others don’t. His former editor, Harry Brofsky, now toiling at the rival Los Angeles Sun, pries Justice from his alcoholic seclusion to help neophyte reporter Alexandra Templeton dig deeper into the story. But why would a seemingly decent kid confess to a brutal gang initiation killing if he wasn�
��t guilty? And how can Benjamin Justice possibly be trusted, given his central role in the Pulitzer scandal that destroyed his career? Snaking his way through shadowy neighborhoods and dubious suspects, he’s increasingly haunted by memories of his lover Jacques, whose death from AIDS six years earlier precipitated his fall from grace. As he unravels emotionally, Templeton attempts to solve the riddle of his dark past and ward off another meltdown as they race against a critical deadline to uncover and publish the truth.
Awarded an Edgar by Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel, this 25th Anniversary edition has been revised by the author. A foreword by Christopher Rice (Bone Music) is included.
Sci-Fi / Horror
JED A. BRYAN
A Cry in the Desert by Jed A. Bryan
A story of the battle against tyranny that remains as relevant now as when it was written.
A group of friends living in Las Vegas are happy and successful: doctors, lawyers, journalists, and decorators. However, their lives go from utopian to dystopian when a law passes to allow the quarantine of those suspected to have AIDS. The government, in a blatant overreach, closes the Nevada border. Those tagged as homosexuals disappear in the middle of the night. Spurred on, former Public Defender wunderkind Larry Armstrong and his lover Dr. Carl Woodsford fight Dr. Alfred Botts, a brilliant strategist who creates a concentration camp in the middle of the Nevada desert where, once behind the tall walls, people are never seen again. They fight him in the halls of hospitals and in the halls of justice but are constantly outmaneuvered by others in high places that are loyal to Botts or being blackmailed into supporting him. As more and more of their friends are snatched in the night, their fight must go underground if they have any hope to stop Botts!
Back after thirty years, this dystopian tale returns with a cautionary word for a new generation. This new edition features a foreword by the author.
JAY B. LAWS
Steam by Jay B. Laws
Paperback: 478 pgs • 978-1-951092-00-9
San Francisco was once a city of music and laughter, of parties and bathhouses, when days held promise and nights, romance. But now something sinister haunts the streets and alleyways of San Francisco, something that crept in with the fog to seek a cruel revenge…
Flint, owner of a once thriving bathhouse, now ravaged by a disease that has no cure, gives himself over to the evil lurking in the steam. Dying men get tickets that say Admit One, hoping for release, only to be dragged into the maelstrom. David, a writer of gay porn, finds himself writing another kind of story. His friend Eddie disappears from his hospital bed, leaving slime and mold, then returns for David. Meanwhile, Bobby is searching for his lover, lost in the same horror.
In this new edition, Jay’s brother Gary D. Laws provides context, reminiscence and extensive quotes revealing what the author had in mind as he created this mini-masterpiece. Set at the height of the AIDS crisis, it is an allegory which chronicles the early days of the epidemic including the glittery discos of the seventies and an ominous abandoned gay bathhouse. Noted author Hal Bodner adds his voice and further context into a 1980s that suddenly turned dark and dangerous but one in which contemporary readers may know only through movies and urban legends.
This classic gay horror suspense tale was a Lambda Literary Awards Best First Novel Finalist.
The Unfinished by Jay B. Laws
Jiggs, a hearing-impaired gay man tortured by the recent death of his parents, moves into a long-vacant San Francisco apartment. The apartment is revealed to be haunted by the Unfinished, spirits whose lives ended prematurely through tragedy, violence or betrayal. Jiggs’s initially adversarial relationship with his spectral housemates soon becomes a partnership when both parties see each other as instrumental to ending their own suffering. The stories unfold via visitations by three Dickensian ghosts offering accounts of their deaths. In one story, a man dying from AIDS confronts the limits of his vanity when he realizes the terrible price of his wish to recapture his looks. In another, a car mechanic’s soul is left to ponder how his weakness led to his murder.
Bonus content! Laws’ short story, “Imagined”, is also included in this edition.
Laws’ second and final novel was published posthumously in 1993. This 2019 edition includes an introduction by Sasha Alyson, founder of the celebrated LGBT press Alyson Publications and a foreword by Greg Herren (Scotty Bradley Mysteries).
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
MATT LUBBERS-MOORE
Murder and Mayhem by Matt Lubbers-Moore
An Annotated Bibliography of Gay and Queer Males in Mystery, 1909-2018
Paperback: 668 pgs • 978-1-951092-15-3
Librarian and scholar Matt Lubbers-Moore collects and examines every mystery novel to include a gay or queer male in the English language starting with the 1909 Arthur Conan Doyle short story “The Man with the Watches,” which is included in its entirety. Authors, titles, dates published, publishers, book series, short blurbs, and a description of how involved the gay or queer male character is with the mystery are all included for a full bibliographic background.
Murder and Mayhem will prove invaluable for mystery collectors, researchers, libraries, general readers, aficionados, bookstores, and devotees of LGBTQ studies. The bibliography is laid out in alphabetical order by author including the blurb and author notes, whether a hard boiled private eye, an amateur cozy, a suspenseful romance, or a police procedural. All subgenres within the mystery field are included: fantasy, science fiction, espionage, political intrigue, crime dramas, courtroom thrillers, and more with a definition guide of the subgenres for a better understanding of the genre as a whole.
An International Book Award Non-Fiction Finalist, this is a ReQueered Tales Original Publication.
IAN YOUNG
The Male Homosexual in Literature by Ian Young
A Bibliography (1982)
Paperback: 442 pgs • 978-1-951092-17-7
Ian Young’s bibliography has served as a basic guide to English-language works of fiction, drama, poetry and autobiography concerned with male homosexuality or having male homosexual characters. Entries include titles published through 1980. Works of primary importance (those in which homosexuality is a major aspect or which are otherwise of particular relevance) are marked with an asterisk for the convenience of researchers and collectors. Works are identified by author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date. For easy reference, entries are numbered and a title index is provided at the end of the main text. Five highly-acclaimed essays on gay literature by Ian Young, Graham Jackson and Dr. Rictor Norton, including essay on gay publishing, round out the listings. A title index of gay anthologies completes the work.
Uniquely acclaimed upon initial publication in 1982: “An essential reference for any student of gay literature” – Gay News (London); “An indispensable adjunct to any collection of literature or subjects which draw upon literature” – Readers Quarterly
This edition is reset, but identical to, the classic and definitive 2nd edition, available the first time as an ebook and in print for the first time in decades.
The Male Homosexual in Literature by By Ian Young
A Bibliography Supplement (2020)
Paperback: 160 pgs • 978-1-951092-19-1
The present supplement includes titles overlooked in the Bibliography Second Edition, plus works written before the 1981 cut-off date but published later, including works published for the first time in book form such as the original text of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, posthumous works (the diaries of Christopher Isherwood and Joe Orton), unexpurgated editions (James Jones’ From Here to Eternity), and newly translated classics (e.g. Marcilio Ficino’s Alcibiades the Schoolboy; the letters of Marcus Aurelius; John Henry Mackay’s novel Fenny Skaller). The current study should be regarded not as a separate work but rather as a second, supplementary volume containing additional material. The two volumes together constitute a preliminary guide to classic (i.e. pre-1980’s, pre-AIDS) gay and b
isexual male literature.
A ReQueered Tales Original Publication.
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