Book picks similar to
The Yellow Canary by Steve Neil Johnson
historical
mystery
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A Body to Dye For
Grant Michaels - 1990
When a vacationing National Park ranger turns up dead in Boston, Stan is implicated in the murder, and must find the killer to clear his own name. With an eye for detail and a mettlesome spirit, Stan finds plenty of clues, but he also confronts the police lieutenant assigned to the case, a man with little tolerance for the world of fashion and style, or for Stan's cheeky attitude. With a sharp tongue as his best defense, a most unlikely detective uses even more unlikely techniques to close the loop and get the killer.
Death Trick
Richard Stevenson - 1981
The gay son of a wealthy family has disappeared. Now it's up to private dick Don Strachey to get to the bottom of this mess--even if he has to cruise every gay bar in the city to do it Don Strachey isn't exactly the most sought-after private eye in Albany, New York. In fact, this gay P.I. has gotten to the point of having to write checks to pay his tab at the cheapest lunch counter in town. And he isn't sure that the latest one, for the grand total of two dollars and ninety-three cents, is going to clear. Then the phone rings. Billy Blount, the gay heir to one of Saratoga Springs' upper-crust families, has disappeared, and his parents want him back. On top of that, Billy, a young and outspoken gay activist, is wanted for the grisly murder of the man he slept with on his last night in Albany--a man he'd never met before that night Set in the glorious, promiscuous pre-HIV late 1970s, Death Trick: A Murder Mystery is a fast-paced excursion through the seamy underside of gay Albany. From gay discos where the hard-pumping music never stops, to the city's infamous baths, to the dark alley behind the local precinct house, this hard-bitten private dick searches for answers to the questions that plague Billy's parents and the police. With his faithful companion (and unfaithful lover) Timmy, plus a cast of characters that includes drag queens, ex-jock gay bar owners, homophobic cops, male hustlers, and wealthy suburbanites, Strachey begins a chase that leads him to seedy gay bars, posh suburban homes, and pricey mental institutions where they use electric shock to destroy "sick" gay tendencies.
Buck Baxter, Love Detective
Geoffrey Knight - 2014
It’s the kinda town that keeps Buck Baxter, private detective, in business.For despite his fondness for a cold gin and a pipe stuffed with cannabis, Buck is the best gumshoe in Wilde City. Why? Because he has rules: never make friends, never make enemies, and never ever fall in love. That is until the day playboy nightclub owner Holden Hart swings into town. He’s suave, he’s charming, he’s chivalrous… and he’s exactly the kinda man that Buck will break all the rules for.From the romance of the Rainbow Palace atop the Wilde City Tower, to the dazzling debauchery of the gentlemen’s parlor The Velvet Viper—from the history surrounding the sinister convent on the hill better known Hell’s Bells, to the lantern-lit opium barge, The Peking Empress, run by the mystical Madame Chang—could Buck be about to unravel the greatest mystery of them all…The mystery of love?
The German
Lee Thomas - 2004
1944 - Barnard, Texas. At the height of World War II, a killer preys on the young men of a quiet Texas town. The murders are calculated, vicious, and they are just beginning. Sheriff Tom Rabbit and his men are baffled and the community he serves is terrified of the monster lurking their streets. The only clues the killer leaves behind are painted snuffboxes containing notes written in German. As the panic builds all eyes turn toward a quiet man with secrets of his own. Ernst Lang fled Germany in 1934. Once a brute, a soldier, a leader of the Nazi party, he has renounced aggression and embraces a peaceful obscurity. But Lang is haunted by an impossible past. He remembers his own execution and the extremes of sex and violence that led to it. He remembers the men he led into battle, the men he seduced, and the men who betrayed him. But are these the memories of a man given a second life, or the delusions of a lunatic?
The Next
Rafe Haze - 2014
A romance springs to life as two strangers merge with a common goal: to catch a killer they suspect occupies one of the apartments across the courtyard. But their romance must hurdle the main protagonist's suffocating, unresolved demons as well as encroaching, life threatening danger. But if they make it through, they can both bring life back to their lives.
The Quarter Boys
David Lennon - 2010
When he meets homicide detective Michel Doucette, he feels his life is finally coming together but soon he finds himself being drawn into a world of drugs and prostitution, and directly into the path of the killer. When Michel and his partner, Alexandra "Sassy" Jones, are given the case, Michel sees it as a chance for a fresh start. Little does he suspect that Joel's life depends on his finding the killer or foresee the personal sacrifices he'll have to make to succeed. "The Quarter Boys" is the first in a series of novels featuring detectives Michel Doucette and Sassy Jones. The second book, "Echoes," won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Mystery.
Untouchable
Robert Innes - 2016
It’s picturesque, idyllic and tranquil – but Harrison is far from happy. His parent’s marriage is strained to say the least and on top of that, his boyfriend, Daniel, has been mentally and physically abusing him for years. After he finds himself with one bruise too many, Harrison has had enough. But when he plucks up the courage to finally end his violent relationship, Harrison’s life is changed forever when Daniel is found murdered in the most bizarre circumstances. Detective Sergeant Blake Harte has moved to Harmschapel after his own relationship ended in tatters. But moving to a quiet village after working his way up the ranks in a city brings its own set of problems and Blake soon finds himself at odds with new colleagues who aren’t used to his style of policing. But when he is called upon to investigate the mysterious and impossible murder at Halfmile Farm, Blake finds himself facing the most challenging case of his career. So how can Daniel have been shot in a locked shed that nobody could possibly have escaped from? Is anybody really Untouchable?
Bourbon Street Blues
Greg Herren - 2003
it doesn't hurt that he's buff, boyish, and completely irresistible, with a job by day as a personal trainer...and the occasional night gig dancing on the bar for rent money. Hey, it's a living. Scotty likes his relaxed life, living upstairs from the coddling lesbian couple he calls his aunties, and hanging out with his eccentric, close-knit family -- stoner-hippie parents, Uptown but well-meaning sister, and scheming lawyer brother. And with New Orleans's biggest circuit party -- Southern Decadence -- about to hit town, Scotty's looking forward to plenty of dancing, cruising, and maybe, just maybe, an adorable Mr. Right.But then Scotty discovers one of his best clients in front of his Decatur Street apartment, shot through the head, execution style. It's even more troubling when his friend Jeremy, he of the disappearing act a year ago, reappears briefly in the bar, begging Scotty to take care of a computer disk for him and spouting something crazy about people being after him. And things get really, really bad when everyone from the cops -- who don't believe anything Scotty says -- to a shadowy man claiming to be an FBI agent is tailing Scotty's every move, waiting for a chance to arrest him...or worse.Now, with help from his best friend David and a gorgeous new lover who just happens to be a cat burglar of the real and not-Cary Grant variety, Scotty's diving into a web of tawdry Southern secrets that stretches all the way to a corrupt political machine whose members would do anything and use anyone to get to Scotty and that disk. Suddenly, the Big Easy's liveliest gay celebration has just taken on asinister glow, and Scotty's carefree living is turning into a desperate race for his life.
The Definitive Albert J. Sterne
Julie Bozza - 2010
Sterne: Future Bright, Past Imperfect.
Albert Sterne, forensics expert with the FBI, is so obnoxious on the surface that no-one bothers digging deeper. When he's sent to Colorado to investigate what turns out to be the work of a serial killer he encounters Special Agent Fletcher Ash and they end up reluctantly joining forces to unravel the case. It's only a matter of duty, though; it can't be more, because Albert doesn't do friendship - and he certainly doesn't do love!
Fadeout
Joseph Hansen - 1970
When entertainer Fox Olson's car plunges off a bridge in a storm, a death claim is filed, but where is Olson's body? As Brandstetter questions family, fans, and detractors, he grows certain Olson is still alive and that Dave must find him before the would-be killer does. Suspenseful and wry, shrewd and deeply felt, Fadeout remains as fresh today as when it startled readers more than thirty years ago.
The Back Passage
James Lear - 2006
But wait — Edward “Mitch” Mitchell is no Hercule Poirot, and The Back Passage is no Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Mitch is a handsome, insatiable 22-year-old hunk who never lets a clue stand in the way of a steamy encounter, whether it’s with the local constabulary, the house secretary, or his school chum and fellow athlete Boy Morgan, who becomes his Watson when they’re not busy boffing each other. When Reg Walworth is found dead in a cabinet, Sir James Eagle has his servant Weeks immediately arrested as the killer. But Mitch’s observant eye pegs more plausible possibilities: polysexual chauffeur Hibbert, queenly pervert Leonard Eagle, missing scion Rex, sadistic copper Kennington, even Sir James Eagle himself. Blackmail, police corruption, a dizzying network of spyholes and secret passages, watersports, and a nonstop queer orgy backstairs and everyplace else mark this hilariously hard-core mystery by a major new talent.
Lily White Rose Red
Catt Ford - 2010
It's 1948 in Las Vegas—the newborn Sin City—and he's just landed his first murder case. He's more at ease among the lowlifes, but his new client, a beautiful, wealthy woman, a real femme fatale, moves in the upper crust of society.Grey's hot on the trail of a killer, despite obstructive cops who don't want a private dick sniffing around and digging up secrets. And he starts getting close to the truth, but one of his suspects, Phillip Martin, AKA Mr. Big—AKA Mr. Beautiful—proves to be a man who could force Grey to reveal a dark secret of his own.
The Affair of the Porcelain Dog
Jess Faraday - 2011
For Ira Adler, former rent-boy and present plaything of crime lord Cain Goddard, stealing back the statue from Goddard's blackmailer should have been a doddle. But inside the statue is evidence that could put Goddard away for a long time under the sodomy laws, and everyone's after it, including Ira's bitter ex, Dr. Timothy Lazarus. No sooner does Ira have the porcelain dog in his hot little hands, than he loses it to a nimble-fingered prostitute.As Ira’s search for the dog drags him back to the mean East End streets where he grew up, he discovers secrets about his own past, and about Goddard's present business dealings, which make him question everything he thought he knew. An old friend turns up dead, and an old enemy proves himself a friend. Goddard is pressing Ira for a commitment, but every new discovery casts doubt on whether Ira can, in good conscience, remain with him. In the end, Ira must choose between his hard-won life of luxury and standing against a grievous wrong.