The Ultimate Exit Strategy, page 23
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition includes a foreword by Mark McNease (Outer Voices, Inner Lives).
Dead as a Doornail by Grant Michaels
A Stan Kraychik Mystery, Book 6 – Newly wealthy psychologist-by-training, hairstylist-by-experience Stan Kraychik buys the last unrenovated brownstone in Boston’s fabulously chic South End only to have the renovations held up by a freak April snowstorm – and the murder of the young, attractive contractor inside his structurally unsound brownstone. Because the contractor resembled Stan, LT. Vito Branco of the Boston Police Department thinks Stan might have been the intended target. While Branco wants Stan to leave town while he investigates the murder, Stan has ideas of his own. Looking into the death, Stan discovers that underneath the well-kept facade of his glamorous neighborhood lies a web of ill-kept secrets, jealousies, and resentments. In the midst of all of it is something that motivated someone to murder, and Stan must find out who – and what – before the murderer strikes again.
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition includes a foreword by Graeme Cheater.
JOHN PRESTON - Alex Kane across America
Sweet Dreams by John Preston
An Alex Kane Mission, Book 1 – Meet Alex Kane. In Vietnam, the only lover he had known had been killed by a homophobic coward. With his physical prowess and the financial backing of his former lover’s family Kane’s sorrow turned to action, and he is resolved to fight back against anyone, anywhere who dare to challenge the dreams of gay men. Someone was daring to mess with young gay men in Boston. Somebody thought they could make a quick buck by exploiting the gay youth. Somebody had never heard of Alex Kane. That is a mistake they will never forget.
A celebrated series of superhero adventure stories written for a general audience by bad boy John Preston whose journalism and fictional writings brought leather and bondage scene mainstream. This new edition includes a foreword by Philip Gambone (As Far As I Can Tell: Finding My Father In World War II).
Golden Years by John Preston
An Alex Kane Mission, Book 2 – Do dreams belong only to the young? Not in Alex Kane’s world. When Kane’s financier discovers a plot to take advantage of older gay men Kane jumps into action, gaining the support of a local cowboy plucked right out of the Old West. These evil doers won’t know what hit them when Alex Kane and his Cowboy ride into town!
A celebrated series of superhero adventure stories written for a general audience by bad boy John Preston whose journalism and fictional writings brought leather and bondage scene mainstream. This new edition includes a foreword by Philip Gambone (As Far As I Can Tell: Finding My Father In World War II).
Sweet Dreams and Golden Years by John Preston
is combined in one edition in paperback
Paperback: 264 pgs • 978-1-951092-49-8
LEV RAPHAEL - Nick Hoffman in Michigan
Let’s Get Criminal by Lev Raphael
Paperback: 240 pgs • 978-1-951092-07-8
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.
This new edition contains a foreword by the author.
The Edith Wharton Murders by Lev Raphael
Paperback: 268 pgs • 978-1-951092-22-1
A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 2 – Nick Hoffman, desperate to get tenure, has been saddled with a thankless task: coordinating a conference on Edith Wharton that will demonstrate how his department and his university supports women’s issues. There’s been widespread criticism that SUM is really the State University of Men. Problem is, he’s forced to invite two warring Wharton societies, and the conflict between rival scholars escalates from mudslinging to murder. Nick’s job and whole career are on the line unless he can help solve the case and salvage the conference.
Receiving raves in the New York Times on initial publication, this new edition contains a foreword by Gregory Ashe (Hazard and Somerset series) as well as a new introduction by the author.
The Death of a Constant Lover by Lev Raphael
Paperback: 260 pgs • 978-1-951092-33-7
A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 3 – Mayhem at the State University of Michigan: Is it murder … or another faculty meeting? Filled with caustic humor about university life and written with literate style and grace, The Death of a Constant Lover escalates Nick Hoffman’s involvement with mayhem and faculty meetings. When the son of a professor is murdered on a campus bridge, Nick’s presence at the scene puts him right where he can’t afford to be: in the middle of trouble. With his tenure review coming up, he’s been warned by his department chair to avoid bad publicity. But Nick is forced to wade in deeper anyway, inexorably drawn into yet another risky investigation in the surprisingly cutthroat world of academia. He may be surrounded by academics with deadly agendas, but he’s armed with the hope that his wit and insight will be enough to avert the death of his career … and maybe his own as well.
A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition contains a 2020 foreword by Brad Shreve (Mitch O’Reilly series) as well as a new introduction by the author.
Little Miss Evil by Lev Raphael
Paperback: 260 pgs • 978-1-951092-41-2
A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 4 – The fourth novel in the highly acclaimed series begins on a high note. It appears that Nick’s career is finally moving in the right direction, and the celebrity that comes with solving murders has brought him more students than he can possibly handle. But things are never calm at the State University of Michigan: Nick’s partner’s career seems to be taking a downturn, a new faculty member is causing a lot of nasty talk, and cryptic messages are showing up in Nick’s mailbox. What turns up next is a corpse—and some very unsettling thoughts for the reluctant sleuth.
Lev Raphael is a Lambda Literary Awards winner and multiple nominee for several books. This new edition in his Nick Hoffman series contains a 2021 foreword by Meg Perry (Jamie Brodie series).
JOHN MORGAN WILSON - Benjamin Justice in Los Angeles
Simple Justice by John Morgan Wilson
Paperback: 280 pgs • 978-1-951092-30-6
A Benjamin Justice Mystery, Book 1 – It’s 1994, an election year when violent crime is rampant, voters want action, and politicians smell blood. When a Latino teenager confesses to the murder of a pretty-boy cokehead outside a gay bar in L.A., the cops consider the case closed. But Benjamin Justice, a disgraced former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, sees something in the jailed boy others don’t. His former editor, Harry Brofsky, now toiling at the rival Los Angeles Sun, pries Justice from his alcoholic seclusion to help neophyte reporter Alexandra Templeton dig deeper into the story. But why would a seemingly decent kid confess to a brutal gang initiation killing if he wasn’t guilty? And how can Benjamin Justice possibly be trusted, given his central role in the Pulitzer scandal that destroyed his career? Snaking his way through shadowy neighborhoods and dubious suspects, he’s increasingly haunted by memories of his lover Jacques, whose death from AIDS six years earlier precipitated his fall from grace. As he unravels emotionally, Templeton attempts to solve the riddle of his dark past and ward off another meltdown as they race against a critical deadline to uncover and publish the truth.
Awarded an Edgar by Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel, this 25th Anniversary edition has been revised by the author. A foreword by Christopher Rice (Bone Music) is included.
General / Literary Fiction
BRIAN BOULDREY
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, this new edition includes a foreword by the author.
Love, the Magician by Brian Bouldrey
In April of 1997, Tristan Broder makes a pilgrimage of sorts from San Francisco to the prickly desert and scalped mountains around Tucson, Arizona, the place where he helped bury his partner Joe five years before. Guided by a comet that crossed the spring sky that year, he wanders toward renewal and resurrection, memory and mystery, deadly secrets and dark intentions.
There are plenty of people in the desert who still love Tristan as much as they did Joe. There’s Maria, Joe’s wild sister, now a converted Pentecostal; her truck-driving husband Earl; Joe’s mother with the dog Murphy she found one day abandoned in the desert; and Joe’s best friend Mik, a tough-minded Punjabi Muslim whose one vanity is his long silken hair. With open and glad hearts, they join Tristan to help him make a memorial to the whole-souled man he loved. Yet, despite the fact that they are all bound, like Tristan, by the memory and love for the saint who once lived among them, every one of them is hiding something.
This new edition includes a foreword by Miriam Wolf and a new introduction by the author.
ROBERT FERRO
The Family of Max Desir by Robert Ferro
Paperback: 220 pgs • 978-1-951092-10-8
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,” praised Edmund White.
His breakout novel, this new edition includes a foreword by friend and fellow author Felice Picano (The Lure).
The Blue Star by Robert Ferro
Paperback: 260 pgs • 978-1-951092-25-2
Two heroes, reflective Peter and Byronic Chase, indulge their youthful appetites in Florence. Over the next 20 years their paths diverge and reconverge. Chase marries into the Italian aristocracy and Peter pursues his passion for Lorenzo, a beautiful young Florentine. The past impinges on the present as the story of Chase’s ancestor, Orvil Starkweather, is revealed – the secrets of his life sounding a counterpoint to Chase’s. New York City’s Central Park and the imposing figure of designer Frederick Law Olmsted provide a mysterious connection to Chase’s life. The story of the two men unfolds in Florence and New York exposing the unimagined and startling connection with the past, and taking them finally on a fateful cruise up the Nile aboard the luxury yacht.
Publishers Weekly hailed it as “Shimmering … superb taste and style”. This new edition includes a foreword by Andrew Holleran (Dancer from the Dance).
Second Son by Robert Ferro
Paperback: 260 pgs • 978-1-951092-xx-x
Mark Valerian, the second son in the Valerian family, is ill, but determined to live life to the fullest–and live forever if he can. When he discovers Bill Mackey, a young theatrical designer who is also suffering from this disease neither wants to name, he also finds the lover of his dreams. Together they develop an incredible plan to survive that will take them to Europe, to rustic Maine, and finally to the wonderful seaside summer mansion of the Valerian family, where father and son confront the painful ties of kinship … and the joyous bonds of love.
Originally published in 1989, it was Ferro’s final novel, completed in the months leading to his death from AIDS as he cared for his lover Michael Grumley. This new edition contains a foreword by Tom Cardamone (Crashing Cathedrals: Edmund White by the Book).
MICHAEL GRUMLEY
Life Drawing by Michael Grumley
Paperback: 220 pgs • 978-1-951092-xx-x
Born in Iowa to the sounds of Bob and Bing Crosby and the Dorsey brothers, Mickey grows up to the comforting images of his living room TV and the reassuring ruts of his parents’ life. During the restless summer of his senior year in high school, drifting away from the girlfriend he could never quite love, Mickey spends a night with another boy, and his world will never be the same. On a barge floating down the Mississippi, he falls in love with James, a black card player from New Orleans, and in time the two of them settle, bristling with sexual intensity, in the French Quarter - until a brief affair destroys James’s trust and sends Mickey to the drugs and sordid life of Los Angeles.
Originally published in 1991, it was Grumley’s only novel, completed in the month’s leading to his death from AIDS as he was cared for his lover Robert Ferro. This new edition contains the original foreword by Edmund White (A Saint from Texas) and afterword by George Stambolian (Gay Men’s Anthologies Men on Men), close friends of the couple.
STAN LEVENTHAL
Mountain Climbing in Sheridan Square by Stan Leventhal
Paperback: 196 pgs • 978-1-951092-21-4
A series of discrete episodes among friends provide snapshots of one gay man’s life. There are parties, concerts, dinners with everyday life – and death – interwoven in the rich story-telling. An actress, a painter, a set designer, a writer – all sweating and surviving in Manhattan, all scoring their first successes. Part autobiography and part documentary, artfully written, it details the lives of these creative people. Young and professional, they know there is more to life than money. There is trust and the sort of love that trades in deeds of kindness.
Leventhal’s debut novel was a Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. This new edition features a foreword by Christopher Bram (Gods and Monsters).
Skydiving on Christopher Street by Stan Leventhal
Paperback: 192 pgs • 978-1-951092-35-1
Stan Leventhal paints a picture of Christopher Street in the 80s and 90s. “The streets became ours again. When the fag-bashers began to get bold, to slither from their slimy lairs, the young gay guys and fledgling lesbians fought back. There was a new war to win, along with battles of fear, ignorance, and indifference… But now the streets belong to us again. We paid for it with our muscles, our brains, our bodily fluids. It has our names written all over it. Our blood fills the cracks in the pavement. It’s ours and we’re never going to give it up.” Against that backdrop, we see the pieces of an ordinary life. He’s an editor for a porn publishing house – it’s not glamorous, it’s just work. His relationship is on the verge of ending. He is visited by the ghosts of friends he has lost to AIDS. In the midst of the familiar days, he learns from his doctor that he too has AIDS.
Leventhal’s final novel was produced in 1995. This new edition features a foreword by Paras Borgohain who is currently writing a screenplay for the novel.
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, this new edition includes a foreword by renowned LGBTQ publicist and friend of Stan Leventhal, Michele Karlsberg.
FELICE PICANO
Like People in History by Felice Picano
