Sunday Best
Page 25
A Body to Dye For by Grant Michaels
A Stan Kraychik Mystery, Book 1 – Stan “Vannos” Kraychik isn’t your everyday Boston hairdresser. Co-owner of Snips Salon with best bud (and occasional nemesis) Nicole, thought this day was an ordinary one. A delivery van backed into the salon’s rear driveway and accidentally spilled gallons of conditioner, leaving Stan (and hunky Roger) embracing in a gooey mess trying to staunch the flow, with little success as they slid and slipped with Nicole watching on with rolling eyes. Later Roger is found murdered.
Stan’s client, Calvin Redding, who owns the apartment where Roger’s body was found, can’t explain why the body is dressed in little more than bowties. Enter Lieutenant Branco, dark, muscular, Italian, (straight) of Boston PD Homicide who immediately suspects everyone, especially Stan. In an attempt to clear his name, Stan travels to California, takes up mountain climbing, eavesdropping, spying, schmoozing, and a little bit of schtupping, all in an attempt to find the truth.
Grant Michaels’ zany series of adventures starring Stan Kraychik garnered multiple Lambda Literary Awards including a 1991 nomination for Best Gay Mystery. For this 2019 edition, Carl Mesrobian reminisces about his brother Grant in an exclusive foreword, and Neil S. Plakcy provides an introduction of appreciation.
Love You To Death by Grant Michaels
A Stan Kraychik Mystery, Book 2 – Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and everyone has a sweetheart, except Stan Kraychik, Boston’s sassiest hairdresser. Ever hopeful of meeting Mr. Right, Stan attends a gala reception that culminates in a death by poisoning, and romantic problems take a back seat to murder. Then Boston police arrest Stan’s friend Laurett Cole, who leaves her four-year-old son in Stan’s care. In his quest to free Laurett from suspicion and himself from his ill-mannered ward, Stan finds himself exploring the secrets of a revered Boston institution, the Gladys Gardner Chocolate Company. There, along with the sweet edibles, he finds an assortment of not-so-delectable murder.
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist in 1993, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by Frank W. Butterfield.
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 in 1993, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by Frank W. Butterfield.
Let’s Get Criminal by Lev Raphael
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.
Originally published in 1996, this first book in the Nick Hoffman Academic Mystery series is now back in print. This new edition contains a 2019 foreword by the author.
Tartan Noir Suspense
FreeForm by Jack Dickson
A Jas Anderson Thriller, Book 1 – A tough gay thriller set in the criminal underworld of Glasgow, Scotland. In the derelict inner-city of Glasgow’s Dennistoun, FreeForm introduces a tough gay cop, Detective-Sergeant Jas Anderson. A violent anti-hero, suspended from duty for assault, Jas is the natural suspect when his lover is found brutally murdered. Now on the run and struggling to clear his name, Jas uncovers Leigh’s involvement in a blackmail ring, and even his lover’s identity becomes confused. Film-noir in inspiration, vividly characterised, and authentically exposing the raw nerves of Thatcherite Britain, FreeForm is pure suspense to it’s final pulse-pounding closing pages.
Originally published in 1998, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by Clive King.
Banged Up by Jack Dickson
A Jas Anderson Thriller, Book 2 – Detective Sergeant Jas Anderson is imprisoned and fighting for his life. Anderson was the violent anti-hero of FreeForm, and ended up in that story, being expelled from the Glasgow police force. Banged Up starts with Jas being framed by his ex-colleagues. He is remanded to Barlinnie prison, and is forced to share a cell with Steve McStay, sentenced for aggravated assault on two gay men. In this all-male environment, inmates don’t divide into gay and straight, but rather into who dominates … and who doesn’t. Resilient as ever, Jas forms an unlikely partnership with Steve in his fight for survival.
Originally published in 1999, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by Matt Lubbers-Moore.
Sophisticated Urban Mystery
The Black Marble Pool by Stan Leventhal
When you first notice it, something seems a bit unusual. Then it occurs to you that most, if not all, of the pools you’ve ever seen before were painted blue or white. The Captain’s House pool is black. Not painted black. But constructed of black marble and black tile. The marble has streaks of white that look like lightning bolts in a black sky. There is a sexiness to this pool; a personality. It looks and feels like a warm, wet blanket, surrounding and protecting you like a dark, quiet womb.
There’s a dead body at the bottom of a pool in the backyard of a guest house in Key West. Who is he? And what caused his untimely demise? Maybe it’s suicide. Or an accident. But more likely – murder! And who’s responsible? One of the guests, the people who run the guest house or one of those mysterious women in town?
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist in 1991, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by renowned LGBTQ publicist and friend of Stan Leventhal, Michele Karlsberg.
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.
First published in 1981, and a Books in Canada First Novel nominee, this new edition contains a 2019 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.
First published in 1986, it won the coveted Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award from the Crime Writers of Canada. This 2019 edition contains a contemporary interview with Phillips on reception of his work and a reminiscence of Edward Phillips’ 80th birthday celebration by Toronto author Nancy Wigston.
Literary
The Genius of Desire by Brian Bouldrey
Hopelessly drawn to the romantic notion of a double life, young Michael Bellman spends summers in Monsalvat, Michigan, coming of age in a loving tangle of highly eccentric relatives: Great Uncle Jimmy speaks to his dead wife during meals; Cousin Anne torments Michael beyond endurance; reckless Cousin Tommy secretly smokes cigars and can’t wait to “kick butt in ’Nam” – and Michael watches every magical move he makes.
A few years and one driver’s license later, as family alliances change and long-silent desires surface, Michael begins to understand his attraction to the double life because he’s living one – at roadside rest stops, in library washrooms, and public parks. Coming out is the first step, coming to terms is the next....
A highly praised debut novel in 1993, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by the author.
The Family of Max Desir by Robert Ferro
It was a family dealing with old values, acceptance and death. Max Desir loved his Italian roots and hearing his mother, Marie, recount tales of the old country. And he loved his American family, his father John a successful self-made businessman in New Jersey. As he came of age, Max discovered something else he loved – men – and met the love of his life in Italy. Now, at age 40, the family is split: Marie and his siblings accept Max and Nick as a stable, long-term couple but his father John does not. When a needlepoint family tree is to be hung at Christmas, it's too much for John. Then the spectre of death enters as Marie rapidly declines with brain cancer. Loyalties divided, acceptance of family is re-examined.
In this beautiful, haunting tale, told in Robert Ferro’s clear, impassioned narrative, he created a classic. “An honest, eloquent and entirely original novel … at once realistic and mythological, intensely personal and public ... a triumph,” opined Edmund White.
Originally published in 1983, this new edition includes a 2019 foreword by fellow author and friend Felice Picano.
Onyx by Felice Picano
Ray Henriques has success, love, friendship ... but lately it’s not enough. Yet it’s not just Ray who is on a quest for deeper meaning. For Jesse, Ray’s lover of ten years, it is a quest accelerated by his imminent death from AIDS. And for young married father of two Mike Tedesco, it is a search for the heart of masculinity. The sexual exploration which begins when Ray and Mike meet awakens a restlessness in both men, which resoundingly alters their future paths. As Ray’s life begins to draw him increasingly into the future, a future without Jesse, he attempts to tether himself to the here and now with frequent visits to a past where life’s answers seemed simpler and more meaningful. But when Jesse’s fundamentalist Christian mother rolls into town to take charge of her son’s final weeks, he is yanked from his reverie to face an opponent unlike any he has ever known.
Marked by shifting points of view, humor, descriptive brilliance and unexpected revelation, Onyx is a multifaceted exploration of inner lives, motivation, love, and the sometimes hollow center beneath a polished surface.
First published to acclaim in 2001, this new edition features a 2019 foreword by the author.
Horror / Paranormal
Steam by Jay B. Laws
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 first published in 1991. It was nominated for Best First Novel by the Lambda Literary Awards.
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.
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. Bonus content! Laws’ short story, “Imagined”, is also included in this edition.
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