An Unseen Attraction


K.J. Charles - 2017
    J. Charles. Lodging-house keeper Clem Talleyfer prefers a quiet life. He’s happy with his hobbies, his work—and especially with his lodger Rowley Green, who becomes a friend over their long fireside evenings together. If only neat, precise, irresistible Mr. Green were interested in more than friendship... Rowley just wants to be left alone—at least until he meets Clem, with his odd, charming ways and his glorious eyes. Two quiet men, lodging in the same house, coming to an understanding... it could be perfect. Then the brutally murdered corpse of another lodger is dumped on their doorstep and their peaceful life is shattered. Now Clem and Rowley find themselves caught up in a mystery, threatened on all sides by violent men, with a deadly London fog closing in on them. If they’re to see their way through, the pair must learn to share their secrets—and their hearts.

Someone Killed His Boyfriend


David Stukas - 2001
    But Robert can't resist Michael, even though the man's motto is Money Can Buy Happiness. And reformed megaslut Michael can't resist strapping southerner Max Crawford, who has agreed to marry him in a wedding that promises to be New York's ultimate gay event.While Michael busies himself booking the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Homosexual �and ordering enough exotic flowers to strip a tropical rainforest, Robert commiserates with Monette, who shares his envy of Michael, his affinity for practical jokes, and his inability to find a lasting same-sex love. Little do they know that what lies in store for Michael is far from wedded bliss.The big day finds Michael, Robert, and Monette mingling with hundreds of Michael's closest friends, plus a crowd of drag queens in rustling taffeta. Curiously, the groom's husband-to-be is nowhere to be found... and neither is Michael's priceless Matisse painting.What's a jilted lover to do? Purchase the finest rifle money can buy and vow to kill the SOB, that's what. With a reluctant Robert in tow, Michael tracks Max all the way to Provincetown, where, amidst throngs of beautiful thong-clad boys, Max turns up dead before Michael can shoot him. Primary suspects Michael and Robert swiftly go into full Hardy Boys mode, accompanied by their own personal Nancy Drew, Monette. When the clues indicate that the culprit is a murderous Bette Davis impersonator, Robert must endure the ultimate test of friendship. Does he dare go undercover with Michael in a drag revue to smoke out the real killer? Does he dare not to? Before you can say, "accessory to murder," Robert and Michael have made their drag debut in heels, sequins, and enough makeup to make Joan Collins look pasty, determined to find the real killer before the killer� and the cops� find them!

The Cardigans


Cole McCade - 2018
    Rigid, ice-cold, and a stickler for the rules, Seong-Jae Yoon is a watchful presence whose obstinacy and unpredictability constantly remind Malcolm why he prefers to work alone. Seong-Jae may be stunningly attractive, a man who moves like a graceful, lethal bird of prey...but he's as impossible to decipher as this case.And if Malcolm doesn't find the key to unravel both in time, another vulnerable young victim may end up dead.

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.

L.A. Heat


P.A. Brown - 2006
    When Chris's efforts to prove his own innocence mark him as a victim, David steps in to save him, and finds himself falling in love with a man who might be a brutal murderer. P.A. Brown's debut is a gritty mystery set in LA's edgy, less glamorous East Side, where gangs co-mingle with gays, gunfire is heard after dark, and where a gay cop like David Laine could live undetected. At least until now.

Ten Days in August


Kate McMurray - 2016
    As the temperatures rise, so does the crime rate. At the peak of this sizzling heat wave, police inspector Hank Brandt is called to investigate the scandalous murder of a male prostitute. His colleagues think he should drop the case, but Hank’s interest is piqued, especially when he meets the intriguing key witness: a beautiful female impersonator named Nicholas Sharp.As a nightclub performer living on the fringes of society, Nicky is reluctant to place his trust in a cop—even one as handsome as Hank. With Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt cracking down on vice in the city, Nicky’s afraid that getting involved could end his career. But when he realizes his life is in danger—and Hank is his strongest ally—the two men hit the streets together to solve the crime. From the tawdry tenements of the Lower East Side to the moneyed mansions of Fifth Avenue, Nicky and Hank are determined to uncover the truth. But when things start heating up between them, it’s not just their lives on the line. It’s their love…

Beach Reading


Mark Abramson - 2008
    On the same night as the dance festival, a infamous evangelist plans to bring his nationwide crusade against gay rights to the Civic Auditorium a few blocks away. Tim Snow finds himself caught in the middle when his activist friends plan a protest. For Tim, the fun-and the intrigue-are about to begin. Beach Reading is equal parts mystery and romantic comedy set in romantic San Francisco with a taste for adventure, a touch of magic.

A Midcoast Murder


Stephen E. Stanley - 2009
    Should he take early retirement or continue teaching? When his best friend, Rhonda Shepard, retires and moves to the coast of Maine to open a gift shop, Jesse offers to help her set up her business. Much to Jesse's surprise, Rhonda's gift shop in located in the town where Jesse grew up. Jesse must not only deal with relocation, but he must also reestablish ties that he had severed thirty-some years ago. Jesse purchases a run-down 1920's bungalow called Eagles Nest. The house was the site of a 1960's commune and has been more or less neglected in recent years. While digging a garden in the isolated back yard, Jesse and his pug dog, Argus, make a gruesome discovery. Police chief Tim Mallory is one of the first on the scene of the discovery. Tim and Jesse were in the same high school graduation class and have a shared history. Tim and Jesse begin the investigation of the unknown victim and struggle to renew their friendship. Thanks to Jesse's keen eye and the indestructibility of polyester fabric, the victim is initially identified as a student who disappeared in 1970. Jesse and Tim begin to research what they believe to be a cold-case file until threats to several former classmates help provide clues to the murder. While Jesse is investigating the murder, he is also struggling to deal with new relationships and the need to establish a sense of place for himself. The events of the plot allow Jesse to explore new areas of his life.

Mahu


Neil S. Plakcy - 2005
    At 32, the hero of Māhū has reached the pinnacle of his profession, detective on the Honolulu Police Department's homicide squad, based at the Waikīkī station. But a difficult murder case, as well as turmoil in his personal life, is about to threaten everything he has worked for.A life-threatening drug bust in chapter 1 makes Kimo realize that it's time to stop lying to himself. He's drawn to the Rod and Reel Club, a gay bar in Waikīkī, where he has a couple of beers and begins the long process of accepting his attraction to other men. Leaving the club, though, he stumbles onto two men dropping a dead body in an alley, and he launches himself into a nightmare where his private life becomes public news.Kimo's pursuit of this case takes him from the seamy underside of Chinatown to the elegance of million-dollar homes in Maunalani Heights, from gay bars where young men stride naked down runways to bloody crime scenes.

Hither, Page


Cat Sebastian - 2019
    All he wants is to retreat to the quiet village of his childhood and enjoy the boring, predictable life of a country doctor. The last thing in the world he needs is a handsome stranger who seems to be mixed up with the first violent death the village has seen in years. It certainly doesn't help that this stranger is the first person James has wanted to touch since before the war.The war may be over for the rest of the world, but Leo Page is still busy doing the dirty work for one of the more disreputable branches of the intelligence service. When his boss orders him to cover up a murder, Leo isn't expecting to be sent to a sleepy village. After a week of helping old ladies wind balls of yarn and flirting with a handsome doctor, Leo is in danger of forgetting what he really is and why he's there. He's in danger of feeling things he has no business feeling. A person who burns his identity after every job can't set down roots.As he starts to untangle the mess of secrets and lies that lurk behind the lace curtains of even the most peaceful-seeming of villages, Leo realizes that the truths he's about to uncover will affect his future and those of the man he's growing to care about.

Light Up the Dark


Suki Fleet - 2016
    His only company, the cold man who promised to keep him safe from harm, Lance. But when Lance dies, Nicky’s assurance of safety disintegrates and his world suddenly becomes a lot more real and a lot more dangerous. Scared to leave the house, Nicky longs for daylight. He employs a gardener to clear the over-grown bushes and vines that have nearly swallowed Thorn Hall whole.The last thing Nicky expects a little light to do is show him something to fight for.Eighteen months in a young offenders’ institute has taught Cai two things: he occupies the playful puppy end of the How Dangerous Are You? spectrum, and he has an unfortunate knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.Desperate for a job, he takes the first offer he gets. Even though Thorn Hall creeps the hell out of him and he barely knows one end of a pair of garden shears from the other.Things start to fall apart when Cai is drawn into Nicky’s strange world of sticky notes and secrets. Cai finds he is now a target, blamed for a crime he didn’t commit. Desperate not to go back to prison, he digs deep and risks all the good things in life to help Nicky run. But now Nicky has someone he wants to protect, he knows he can’t run any more.

Deadly Nightshade


Victor J. Banis - 2009
    Straight cop, gay cop, and a woman who "isn't real." Tom and Stanley are on the trail of a drag queen serial killer, and along the way, they find themselves engaged in a more intimate pursuit, trying to resolve another mystery: their unexpected attraction to one another.

The Little Death


Michael Nava - 1986
    A burnt-out public defender battling alcoholism, Rios has reached a crossroads in his life. While interviewing Paris in jail, Rios goes through the motions, but notices that Paris is far more polished and well-off than the usual drug suspects. Paris is mysteriously bailed out—but a few weeks later, he turns up on Rios’s doorstep. Skittish and paranoid, he admits to using heroin and says he’s afraid that his wealthy grandfather wants to murder him.Rios tries to help Paris get clean, but when Paris is found dead of an apparent heroin overdose, Rios is the only one who considers foul play. Determined to find Paris’s killer, Rios knocks on San Francisco’s most gilded doors, where he discovers a family tainted by jealousy, greed, and hate. They’ve been warped by a fortune someone’s willing to kill—and kill again—to possess.At once an atmospheric noir mystery and a scathing indictment of a legal system caught in the maws of escalating corruption, The Little Death chronicles one man’s struggle to achieve true justice for all.

Idyll Threats


Stephanie Gayle - 2015
    By chance, Chief Lynch met her mere hours before she was killed. The case should be a slam dunk. But there's a problem. If he tells his detectives about meeting the victim, he'll reveal his greatest secret--he's gay. So Lynch works angles of the case on his own. Without the aid of fellow detectives, he is forced to seek help from unlikely allies--a Goth teen and a UFO-obsessed conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, he must contend with pressure from the mayor to solve the crime before the town's biggest tourist event opens, all the while coping with the suspicions of his men, casual homophobia, and difficult memories of his partner's recent death.During the investigation, Lynch realizes that small town Idyll isn't safe, especially for a man with secrets that threaten the thing that he loves most--his job.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Death by Silver


Melissa Scott - 2013
    But the latest Londoner to seek Ned’s magical aid gives him pause: Mr Edgar Nevett, an arrogant banker, is the father of the bully who made Ned’s life hell at boarding school. Nevertheless, Ned accepts the commission to ensure the Nevett family silver bears no ancient or modern curses, and then prepares to banish the Nevett family to unpleasant memory again. Until Edgar Nevett is killed by an enchanted silver candlestick—one of the pieces Ned declared magically harmless.Calling on his old school friend Julian Lynes—private detective and another victim of the younger Nevett—Ned races to solve the murder, clear the stain on his professional reputation, and lay to rest the ghosts of his past.Assisted by Ned’s able secretary Miss Frost, who has unexpected metaphysical skills of her own, Ned and Julian explore London’s criminal underworld and sodomitical demimonde, uncover secrets and scandals, confront the unexpected murderer and the mysteries of their own relationship.In Death by Silver veteran authors Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold introduce a Victorian London where magic works, influencing every aspect of civilized life, and two very appealing detectives.