Richard Stevenson - Donald Strachey Mysteries (Gay PI)
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Richard Stevenson - Donald Strachey Mysteries (Gay PI)
- Death Trick
In the series opener Albany PI Donald Strachey takes on a sensational murder case within the gay community – which just happens to be up his own alley. This one is made memorable by Stevenson's portrait of gay life from nearly a quarter of a century ago (remember bath houses?!) Appealing, believable characters (Timothy Callahan, Strachey's Jesuit-educated lover is a creative gem) and a wicked sense of humor lift this novel "straight" out of the genre.
- On the Other Hand
When the giant Millpond Company finds its plans for a mega-shopping mall stymied by the refusal of an elderly lesbian couple to sell their home, the ladies are subjected to ugly vandalism and frightening death threats. The powerful director of Millpond in turn hires Don Strachey, Albany's only gay detective, to protect the ladies, find the culprits, and clear the corporate name. Strachey accepts with misgivings that deepen rapidly as kidnapping, extortion, and murder darken the lives of Albany's gay community. Fast-paced, deftly plotted, and superbly written, this is one of the best Strachey novels yet.
- Ice Blues
Donald Strachey finds the grandson of the godfather of Albany's political machine dead--in Donald's car. When he finds a letter on the corpse specifically asking for his help, Donald, a gay P.I., does his best to fulfill the dead man's mission-even at the risk of his own life.
- Third Man Out
Which powerful mystery man killed the gay activist for outing him?
After an attempt is made on his life, Queer Nation activist John Rutka asks tough-as-nails gay private detective Don Strachey to provide him with protection. Why does someone want to kill him? The activist's efforts at outing closeted gay homophobes have earned him a multitude of enraged enemies who would just as soon see him dead. After Strachey refuses to help, the man's body is found savagely murdered in apparent retribution for his deeds. Now, because of this, the reluctant Strachey feels obligated to investigate. Third Man Out brings back one of the most popular gay heroes in mystery fiction, Don Strachey, a private investigator as hard-boiled as they come, along with his lover, Tim Callahan, in a topical and very entertaining mystery dealing with the ethical issues of outing.
The Don Strachey mysteries starring Chad Allen are now being filmed for here!, the first gay television network. Third Man Out starring Chad Allen as Don Strachey aired in September 2005.
An excerpt from Third Man Out
I almost asked John Rutka if somebody had shot him in the foot--I knew plenty of people who'd have loved to but before I could, he gave me a look of astonishment and said, "I've been shot. One of them actually shot me."
"Somebody shot you in the foot?"
"One of them tried to kill him," Eddie Sandifer said, "but they only got him in the foot."
Sandifer looked stunned too, and uncharacteristically shaky; ordinarily it was these two who inspired anger and fright, and Sandifer seemed unsure of what to make of this turn of events.
"It must have been somebody I outed," Rutka said, and looked down, appalled, at the bandaged foot. "God, they're even sicker than I thought. I knew some of them were pathetic, but this is something only a psychopath would do."
We all peered down at the foot as if it might add something on its own behalf. I'd walked over to Albany Med from Crow Street to visit yet another dying friend when I ran into Rutka and Sandifer, and we were in the parking lot outside the E.R., standing in vapors rising from the tarmac after an early evening thunderstorm. Everybody looked purple under the arc lamps, spooky in the urban miasma. Ambulances coasted in and out through the mist, the Tuesday night torn and traumatized delivered as swiftly and silently as Fed-Exed envelopes. Somebody was probably working on a way to fax them in.
Rutka's wound was to his right foot, which he lifted from the pavement a few inches, his right arm over Sandifer's shoulder for support, while he described the incident. As I listened, I tried to concentrate on the narrative and not become distracted by Rutka's wandering left eye, which, in his excitement, was now all over the place.
So Don Strachey must sift through Rutka's much sought-after files to root out the one suspect with the most to lose. Third Man Out revisits one of the wittiest, most magnetic private detectives in mystery literature, on a difficult case involving his lover Tim Callahan, murder, scandal, and the ethical issues of one of the more controversial aspects of gay activism.
- A Shock to the System
Donald Strachey is asked to look into the death of Paul Haig by Haig's homophobic mother, ex-lover, and psychiatrist, but just as Strachey gets started, all three ask him to stop the investigation.
- Chain of Fools
Private Investigator Donald Strachey and his longtime lover, Timothy Callahan, are called to the bedside of the ailing Skeeter McCaslin - Timmy's first lover from their high school days. Skeeter's lover, Eric Osborne, was murdered some months ago, and Skeeter suspects that it wasn't simply a random act. In addition, Janet Osborne, Eric's sister, has just survived an attempt on her life, and Skeeter believes that both were attacked to silence them before the sale of their family newspaper. Eric and his sister, along with their mother, favored selling the paper to a small firm that will preserve the paper's tradition of liberal advocacy, while conservative relatives want it sold to a politically reactionary chain that will pay much more for it.. "Agreeing to help look into the circumstances of Eric's murder and the attack on Janet as a favor to Timmy's first boyfriend, Strachey must now unravel the closely held family secrets behind the attacks before the culprit succeeds again.
- Strachey's Folly
Albany P.I. Donald Strachey and his lover, Timothy Callahan, take a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit Maynard Sudbury, one of Timmy's old friends from his Peace Corps days, and to see the AIDS Memorial Quilt. But their visit to the quilt is marred when Maynard comes across a panel for an ex-lover - a conservative Washington insider named Jim Suter - whom Maynard had seen alive and well two weeks earlier in Mexico. Even odder than the bogus panel is the disguised visitor they spot looking at the panel - conservative ex-Congresswoman Betty Krumfutz, who resigned her seat in disgrace after a fiscal scandal erupted over her election and her husband left her for another woman. But what first seemed odd soon becomes dangerous. Strachey must find the secrets behind Suter's disappearance, the fake panel in the AIDS Memorial Quilt, Betty Krumfutz's mysterious appearance, and, most important, who is willing to kill to protect those secrets.
- Tongue Tied
Under normal circumstances, PI Donald Strachey wouldn't take a job from right-wing radio "shock jock" J-Bird. But Strachey not only needs the money, he's also intrigued that the death threats against the radio DJ are being made in the name of a radical gay rights group that has been defunct for over twenty years. When things escalate past mere threats, Strachey has precious little time to uncover the connection between a group from the past and the violent present.
- Death Vows
Gay marriage in Massachusetts is a fine institution------except when it leads to murder, as it does in this taut, suspenseful Don Strachey private eye novel, the ninth in the classic series. Strachey and his loving foil, Timothy Callahan, are back in perfect form in this witty, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller.
10. The 38 Million Dollar Smile
Gary Griswold, cheerily dim gadfly scion of Albany old money, late of the Key West artists colony, goes missing, and his ex-wife wants to know what's happened to him - not to mention his 38 million dollars in cash. Turns out that religious dilettante Gary and his money have disappeared into Thailand, where corruption has its own etiquette. Soon, Albany's only gay PI, Don Strachey, is out of his element, and his lover Timmy is way out of his comfort zone as they comb the Land of Smiles for a man with an unerring weakness for the poorest choice possible and a daft plan to buy 38 million dollars worth of good karma.
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