The Gay Detective: Homosexualy Crime Fictn - Crimal Element

Contents:

• GAY DETECTIVE NOVELS BOOKS
• GAY DETECTIVE BOOKS
• THE GAY DETECTIVE: HOMOSEXUALY CRIME FICTN
• THE HAMMETT AND CHANDLER OF GAY DETECTIVE FICTN
• A REISSUE HELPS REVIVE JOSEPH HANSEN'S SERI ABOUT A TOUGH, GAY TECTIVE
• PL BURSTON'S TOP 10 GAY FICTN BOOKS

GAY DETECTIVE NOVELS BOOKS

(shelved 1 time as gay-tective-novels).

There isn’t enough space this article (or, ed, a rather long history book) to explore the long and shameful lerary history of amg gay characters as eher victims or villas. Fast forward through several s of margalizg gay voic or treatg gay romance as eroti, and the days, we’ve fally got mastream publishers wakg up to the fact that queer stori have a vast and growg dience, although we ntue to be bted to the outsized ntributns of small prs such as Bywater Books.

GAY DETECTIVE BOOKS

Of his but, Rs Thomas has wrten, “I had a gay protagonist long before I had a tective protagonist, ” and while this layed the path to publitn, bee for some absurd reason publishers ed to thk women on wanted straight hearthrobs—I subm to you as evince the ENTIRE world of fan fictn—by the time Thomas published Firewatchg, he did so to near-universal acclaim. Now, I’m close to fishg U Up?, her ice-ld sophomore novel of love and loss LA, and I’m rather annoyed at havg to stop readg to wre this blurb. In 1986 Los Angel, homophobia is an all-time high, and an ultra-nservative anizatn is ready to fan the flam of hatred wh a ballot iative to round up HIV posive Angelos and put them mps.

The Savage Kd brgs a new meang to “Be gay. When I created DS Adam Tyler for Firewatchg, I did so partly bee I wanted to create a fictnal tective who was gay. There were gay protagonists (rare, but they did exist), and there were gay police officers (often send or third tier the hierarchy of characters), but I uld not thk of a sgle queer protagonist.

He explicly stat that he isn’t homosexual, but his obssn wh Dickie Greenleaf, and his tenncy towards unreliable narratn more than suggt otherwise.

THE GAY DETECTIVE: HOMOSEXUALY CRIME FICTN

I fd almost nceivable that there was one gay character at the helm of a mystery seri for over twenty years, and I only very recently disvered him! He’s openly gay, or homosexual (Hansen apparently hated the term gay), and though he feels no need to announce to everyone he meets, he’s not ashamed of eher. Firstly, like his ntemporary Delafield, he’s an actual p, an LAPD reer police officer (there seem to be far fewer male gay tectiv than female).

He’s also a big bear of a man who breaks a lot of the earlier stereotyp (so often mysteri and thrillers the gay man is portrayed as a sleazy, sadistic baddie wh unwholome sexual predilectns). So far, Sturgis has steadfastly avoid beg killed off (a rare skill for a gay supportg st member), which mt make him the longt nng gay character a mystery seri ever.

THE HAMMETT AND CHANDLER OF GAY DETECTIVE FICTN

Set 1980s San Francis, he’s unashamed to tackle the thornier issu of gay life—dgs, alhol and the AIDS crisis. Hap Colls is the sensive, broodg workg-class labourer who avoids vlence at almost any st, while Leonard Pe is a gay black Vietnam veteran wh a vlent streak, who’s more than happy to shoot any man who unrtimat him. But ’s Leonard Pe who stands out as somethg special, a gay protagonist the mystery genre who breaks every stereotype the book.

A REISSUE HELPS REVIVE JOSEPH HANSEN'S SERI ABOUT A TOUGH, GAY TECTIVE

If there are few gay protagonists crime fictn, there are fewer still the annals of historil crime. Insurance vtigator Dave Brandstretter is unapologetilly gay, tough, and mascule, but also tenr.

PL BURSTON'S TOP 10 GAY FICTN BOOKS

” Published 1970, the book lnched a groundbreakg seri, the gold standard for ser gay crime fictn.