by Lev Raphael
“What about Perry’s money?” I asked, breaking one of the long companionable silences.
“We should give it all away, whatever comes to us. It’s poisoned.”
“Good.” I was glad he agreed. “He left you the money to cause trouble. Between us, and for you. I bet he figured it would make you a suspect.”
Stefan nodded.
We had no idea how much money would be traced to Rose or Chuck or someone else. All that would eventually come out through investigation and Chuck’s trial, I supposed. The police would be going through all of Perry’s belongings, including what they’d carted away from his office. Following my suggestions, they had already found the letter from Chuck’s adviser; it was simply folded in half and used as a bookmark in a Wharton first edition: The Reef. Hiding in plain sight.
There was more excitement in the EAR Department. When Stefan went in the morning after Chuck attacked me, he found a policeman posted at Claire’s office to make sure that nothing was removed. She had apparently been arrested and charged with embezzlement. A College of Humanities audit had revealed years of scholarship checks written to people who didn’t exist—which explained her monied air and her odd behavior at times. Even better, I thought, whatever had happened between Lynn Broadshaw and Bill was already leaking out in the department. Serena had told this to Stefan.
As for Chad, it turned out he had nothing to do with the murder. The Campus Police arrested him the morning after Rose Waterman’s death for dealing steroids to other athletes at SUM—that was why he’d been so edgy and afraid of giving them his name.
Stefan sighed now in front of the fire.
“Tired?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking that Perry’s dead because of me. I helped him get the job here.”
“You felt sorry for him—it wasn’t your fault. He was a creep. Somebody was going to kill him sooner or later. Who knows how many other people he was blackmailing?”
“Even if that’s true, it was sooner, not later. And then what about Rose?”
“I can’t feel bad about the death of an ex-Nazi, or whatever she was, can you, really?”
He reluctantly shook his head, looking very much like his father when he’d driven up to see if I was okay. Both had agreed that a thorough airing of Rose’s past would have been preferable, educating people and punishing her. “She escaped,” Mr. Borowski had said simply. “Escaped all those years, and then finally.” Stefan had nodded and then stopped, turning a little red. It was an awkward moment for him to feel even that close to his father. But he didn’t draw back. And Mr. Borowski stayed for coffee and a complete recounting of my adventures. I did not, however, tell him how strongly I’d suspected Stefan.
“Hey,” I said now, pouring more champagne. “Remember how Rose was worried about bad PR for the university? Look at it now: two murders, blackmail, sexual harassment, academic theft, embezzlement, plus one ex-Nazi. And student drug dealing, too.” I looked at Stefan eagerly. “This would make a great novel!”
“Not for me,” Stefan said a little haughtily. “I do not write mysteries.”
“Just an idea, hon. It was just an idea.”
I sliced myself another piece of cake.
Acknowledgments
My thanks for their valuable assistance to Dr. Dean Sienko, Chief Medical Examiner of the Ingham County Health Department; Captain Mike Rice of Michigan State University’s Department of Police and Public Safety; and Carol Seaman of the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office.
I’m grateful to my wise and witty editor, Keith Kahla, for his good advice.
I owe special thanks to two people whose help was both general and specific. My best friend, Kris Lauer, warmly shared her encyclopedic knowledge of mysteries with me, pointing me to writers and books I needed to know or reread. Our frequent talks about those books and about various aspects of writing and reading mysteries gave me energy, confidence, and insight.
I began work on Let’s Get Criminal while touring with Dancing on Tisha B’Av, and my life partner, Gersh Kaufman, deserves a medal for coming on so much of the tour with me. He also went on a different voyage while I wrote this book, sharing his own love of mysteries. He never got tired of helping me, and his spirited assistance and enjoyment encouraged me to test my own limits.
Many years ago, my mother’s love for Agatha Christie, Phoebe Atwood Taylor, and John Creasey opened up a whole new world of reading for me. I wish she were well enough to read this book.
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, s
omething 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 Bodner seeks to set aright.
A 4th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Finalist 1992 [Originally published 1991]
A Body to Dye For by Grant Michaels
A Stan Kraychik Mystery, Book 1 — Stan Kraychik is a hairdresser in Boston, leading a successful hairdresser’s life. Successful hairdressers’ lives vary widely but they usually have one thing in common – no dead bodies. Not only does Stan find a dead body but the police suspect that he’s the killer. Stan, on the other hand, suspects his arrogant client, Calvin, who dragged him into his mess. Proving Calvin did it will clear Stan’s name. Proving it without landing into a different pool of trouble … well, that’s a problem Stan will have to solve.
Grant Michaels' zany series of adventures starring Stan Kraychik garnered multiple Lambda Literary Awards including a 1991 nomination for Best Gay Mystery for A Body to Dye For. For this new edition, Neil Placky provides an appreciation in a 2019 foreword.
A 3rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards Finalist 1991 [Originally published 1990]
Coming Soon
Freeform by Jack Dickson
A Jas Anderson Adventure, 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 Mystery, 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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