The tough, hard-nosed detective trope takes a colorful turn after a gay detective is discovered on his knees in a gay club. His career over and unable to get a decent job elsewhere, Evander Mills contemplates suicide. Then a gorgeous dame walks into a bar and offers him a job…
The author does an admirable job of presenting us with the San Francisco milieu of the 1950s, a time when homosexuals were regularly persecuted. Evander isn’t necessarily as hard-boiled as his fictional predecessors. He doesn’t like to see women being bullied or abused and is swift to protect such damsels in distress. So he’s an easy mark for Pearl Velez when she comes asking him to investigate her wife’s murder.
The notion of gay people marrying is decades in the future. Evander is intrigued and wondering at an oasis where queer people live happily and openly, shut off and protected from a world that would persecute them if it knew. The dead Irene was clearly a beauty. But her portrait hints at a tough inner core that dares the viewer to keep facing her. Evander Mills has to figure out if she was murdered and, if so, by whom.
Taking its cue from 1950s mysteries, the story manages to be intriguing and alluring. Evander is already attracted to the handsome young man he meets. Who knows what else will be stirred up if he continues his investigation? I, for one, am keen to find out.
The author does an admirable job of presenting us with the San Francisco milieu of the 1950s, a time when homosexuals were regularly persecuted. Evander isn’t necessarily as hard-boiled as his fictional predecessors. He doesn’t like to see women being bullied or abused and is swift to protect such damsels in distress. So he’s an easy mark for Pearl Velez when she comes asking him to investigate her wife’s murder.
The notion of gay people marrying is decades in the future. Evander is intrigued and wondering at an oasis where queer people live happily and openly, shut off and protected from a world that would persecute them if it knew. The dead Irene was clearly a beauty. But her portrait hints at a tough inner core that dares the viewer to keep facing her. Evander Mills has to figure out if she was murdered and, if so, by whom.
Taking its cue from 1950s mysteries, the story manages to be intriguing and alluring. Evander is already attracted to the handsome young man he meets. Who knows what else will be stirred up if he continues his investigation? I, for one, am keen to find out.