Maude Hutchins’ A Diary of Love is a lyrical, stream-of-consciousness exploration of the sensory and emotional awakening of Noel, a sensitive young woman navigating the complexities of human desire. Raised in a mid-Victorian country house by her flute-playing grandfather, an inhibited aunt, and a sickly governess named Miss Heminway, Noel’s world is defined by her … Read more
Spring comes to the supernatural town of Blitheton, which can only mean one thing: It’s time for the annual mermaid festival!
In A Darker Domain, Val McDermid weaves together two cold cases that converge around the legacy of the 1984-85 miners’ strike in Fife, Scotland. Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, head of the Cold Case Unit, investigates the disappearance of Mick Prentice, who vanished during the strike, and the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman’s daughter that occurred … Read more
A three-act melodrama about Irène, a lesbian who pretends engagement to Jacques while tortured by her love for the unseen Madame d’Aiguines, ultimately returning to the relationship saying ‘it is a prison to which I must return captive, despite myself.’
In A Circle of Friends, Lindsay Welsh moves away from the short-story format of her previous collections to deliver a singular, interconnected narrative centered on a group of women in a sleepy seaside town. The plot follows a diverse circle of friends as they navigate the shifting boundaries between platonic companionship and romantic desire. At … Read more
In 69 Barrow Street, Sheldon Lord (Lawrence Block) delivers another slice of mid-century Greenwich Village life, blending the “small town in a big city” atmosphere with the transgressive edge typical of 1960s pulp. The story centers on a specific address that serves as a crossroads for a variety of “lost souls” and bohemians. While the … Read more
In 50 Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read, Richard Canning curates an essential roadmap through the queer literary landscape. Rather than a simple list, the book is a collection of fifty succinct essays written by a diverse group of critics, authors, and public figures. These contributors dive into works ranging from the ancient (like … Read more
In 2nd Fiddle by Kate Calloway, private investigator Cassidy James returns for her second outing, this time dealing with the fallout of a high-profile kidnapping. When a wealthy local businessman’s daughter is snatched, the police are quick to focus on the obvious leads, but Cassidy suspects there is a more intimate betrayal at play. As … Read more
In 21 Gay Street, Sheldon Lord (a pseudonym for mystery legend Lawrence Block) provides a voyeuristic, “beatnik” look at Greenwich Village life in the late 1950s. The story follows Joyce Kendall, a fresh-faced college graduate from Iowa who arrives in New York for a job at a “true confessions” magazine. She finds a room in … Read more
In 1st Impressions, by Kate Calloway, rookie private investigator Cassidy James trades her quiet life in Cedar Hills, Oregon, for a high-stakes murder case that hits closer to home than she’d like. After the mutilated body of a wealthy local is pulled from a lake, Cassidy is hired to find the killer—by the prime suspect … Read more