“At my place, resting.”
Nicole said, “I hope the nap doesn’t spoil his sleep for later.”
“I have other plans to spoil his sleep for later,” I said.
A small wry smile appeared on the corners of Branco’s mouth. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said, then departed quickly through the back door.
Nicole said, “It’s nice that you two are on friendly terms. I always said you needed a strong man.”
“Nikki, get real! He’s a straight cop! The pathway to love for me is a more realistic one, directly home tonight.”
She sighed. “Perhaps you’re right, Stani. Why pursue an elusive romance when you can have a willing one?”
“Especially since the elusive ones will always be there, eluding me.”
Nicole put on her coat. “I still feel sorry for Vivian Brickley, tricked into marriage by her husband.”
“She almost couldn’t help it. Roy Brickley is a classic example of puer aeternus, the eternal boy who avoids the responsibilities of adulthood. People like him prey on others to take care of them. With her strong maternal instinct, Vivian Brickley was an easy mark.”
A cab sounded its horn out front. “Good night, darling,” Nicole said, and hugged me firmly. “See you in the morning.”
“Night, doll.” The cab whisked her away. I locked up the shop and headed home, contemplating which delectable method I would use to awaken Yudi.
Up the long flights of stairs I trudged. It had been a strenuous week, filled with more activity than I’d ever had. But one thing was clear from all the running and flying and questioning and arguing and pain—I knew I was alive. Now I looked forward to a night of peace and pleasure with my young guest.
I unlocked the door and opened it, and was surprised that Sugar Baby didn’t greet me as usual. Then my nose sensed a strange exotic aroma filling the air. It was a pungent scent from ages past. “Yudi?” I called out. No answer. “Anyone here?” Then I heard soft music coming from the bedroom. As I approached, I saw flickering candlelight from within, and the smell of incense became stronger. I got to the doorway and was dazzled.
My bedroom had become the plush interior of a sultan’s tent, with heavy red damask hanging in great billowing waves from a center point of the ceiling. Several small glass oil lamps were arranged throughout the tent, giving off a warm, welcome glow. On the bed lay Yudi, amid tassled pillows and wearing only loose puffy pantaloons of the flimsiest gauze. Sugar Baby purred contentedly by his hip.
I thought, All I want is rest and peace, not bedroom drama. But then I realized that Yudi had created a small dreamy world that offered more interesting recreational possibilities than the traditional bedroom surroundings.
He spoke softly to me, imitating the soothing sounds of Middle Eastern lute music coming from behind the dense fabric. “Welcome, O pasha, to your harem.” He lightly brushed together the tiny brass cymbals attached to the thumbs and middle fingers of each hand. Their clear high chime caused a shiver of delight up the center of my back. “Come,” he said, “and I will tell you a long, long story.”
I flopped onto the bed and nuzzled into his neck. “Start talking, Sharazad. Let’s begin at chapter one.”
About ReQueered Tales
In the heady days of the late 1960s, when young people in many western countries were in the streets protesting for a new, more inclusive world, some of us were in libraries, coffee shops, communes, retreats, bedrooms and dens plotting something even more startling: literature—high brow and pulp—for an explicitly gay audience. Specifically, we were craving to see our gay lives—in the closet, in the open, in bars, in dire straits and in love—reflected in mystery stories, romance, paranormal and more. Hercule Poirot, that engaging effete Belgian creation of Agatha Christie might have been gay … Sherlock Holmes, to all intents and purposes, was one woman shy of gay ... but where were the genuine gay sleuths, where the reader need not read between the lines?
Beginning with Victor J Banis's "Man from C.A.M.P." pulps in the mid-60s—riotous romps spoofing the craze for James Bond spies—readers were suddenly being offered George Baxt's Pharoah Love, a black gay New York City detective, and a real turning point in Joseph Hansen's gay California insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter, whose world weary Raymond Chandleresque adventures sold strongly and have never been out of print.
Over the next three decades, gay storytelling grew strongly in niche and mainstream publishing ventures. Even with the huge public crisis—as AIDS descended on the gay community beginning in the early 1980s—gay fiction flourished. Stonewall Inn, Alyson Publications, and others nurtured authors and readers … until mainstream success seemed to come to a halt. While Lambda Literary Foundation had started to recognise work in annual awards about 1990, mainstream publishers began to have cold feet. And then, with the rise of ebooks in the new millennium which enabled a new self-publishing industry … there was both an avalanche of new talent coming to market and burying of print authors who did not cross the divide.
The result?
Perhaps forty years of gay fiction—and notably gay and lesbian mystery, detective and suspense fiction—has been teetering on the brink of obscurity. Orphaned works, orphaned authors, many living and some having passed away—with no one to make the case for their creations to be returned to print (and e-print!).
Until now. That is the mission of ReQueered Tales: to bring back to circulation this treasure trove of fantastic fiction which, for one reason or another, has fallen by the wayside. In an era of ebooks, everything of value ought to be accessible. For a new generation of readers, these mystery tales are full of insights into the gay world of the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. And for those of us who lived through the period, they are a delightful reminder of our youth and reflect some of our own struggles in growing up gay in those heady times.
We are honoured, here at ReQueered Tales, to be custodians shepherding back into circulation some of the best gay and lesbian fiction writing and hope to bring many volumes to the public, in modestly priced, accessible editions, worldwide, over the coming months and years.
So please join us on this adventure of discovery and rediscovery of the rich talents of writers of recent years as the PIs, cops and amateur sleuths battle forces of evil with fierceness, humour and sometimes a pinch of love.
The ReQueered Tales Team
Justene Adamec • Alexander Inglis • Matt Lubbers-Moore
More from ReQueered Tales
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.
This classic gay horror suspense tale by Jay B Laws finally returns to circulation. First published in 1991, at the height of the AIDS crisis, this allegory chronicles the early days of the epidemic. It features the glittery discos of the seventies and an ominous abandoned gay bathhouse, in what is now something of a time capsule. It was nominated for Best First Novel by the Lambda Literary Awards.
In this new edition, Jay's brother Gary D Laws provides context and reminiscence—as well as extensive quote from Jay Laws on what the author had in mind as he created this mini-masterpiece. Notable author Hal Bodner also pays tribute and provides context for the era reflected: a 1980s that suddenly turned dark and dangerous but one in which contemporary readers may know only through movies and urban legends, something Bodn
er seeks to set aright.
A 4th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Finalist 1992 [Originally published 1991]
Let's Get Criminal by Lev Raphael
A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 1 — Nick Hoffman has everything he has ever wanted: a teaching job, a nice house, and a solid relationship with his lover, Stefan Borowski, a brilliant novelist and the Michiganopolis University's writer in residence. 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 qualification, he also discovers that Perry played a destructive role in Stefan's past. When Perry turns up dead, Nick wonders if Stefan might have had something to do with it while the campus security 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 edition contains a 2019 foreword by the author.
[Originally published in 1996]
Coming Soon
Freeform by Jack Dickson
A Jas Anderson Thriller, Book 1 — A tough gay thriller set in the criminal underworld of Glasgow, Scotland. Set in the derelict inner-city of Glasgow's Dennistoun, FreeForm introduces a tough new gay cop, Detective-Sergeant Jas Anderson. A violent anti-hero, suspended from duty for assault when the story opens, Jas is the natural suspect when Leigh, his lover and partner in a heavy S/M relationship, 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 set to appeal to a wide readership.
[Originally published in 1998]
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 scatalogical references and puns.
A Books in Canada Best First Novel Finalist 1981 [Originally published in 1980]
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 [Originally published 1993]
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A Body To Dye For (Stan Kraychik Book 1) Page 27