July 2023 MBR The LGBT Fiction Shelf

The LGBT Fiction Shelf

Wild with All Regrets
E. L. Deards
She Writes Press
www.shewritespress.com
9781647424879, $17.95, PB, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Wild-All-Regrets-Emma-Deards/dp/1647424879

Synopsis: A decade has passed since Lucas Connolly lost his best friend (and the only man he's ever loved) in World War I, but he still can't shake his guilt over Jamie's death. In fact, ever since losing Jamie, Lucas has heard his friend's voice inside his head -- confused about what happened to him, begging him for help. And now, suddenly, it's not just Jamie's voice anymore; now, a specter who looks and acts exactly like Jamie did before his death, and who is demanding answers from Lucas about what happened to him, has begun to haunt him.

Concerned about Lucas's deteriorating mental state, his friend Angela encourages him to move on with his life, and even sets him up with a co-worker whom she suspects is also gay. But Lucas is too consumed with the secret he still keeps about the part he played in Jamie's death to even begin to form a healthy connection with someone new -- and as Jamie's ghost begins to recover his memories and get closer to the truth, Lucas's obsession only deepens.

Ultimately, Lucas realizes that his only path forward is to first go backward --that only in examining his troubled youth, facing his deepest self, and shining a light on the shadowed parts of his past will he finally be able to set his old friend, and himself, free.

Critique: A deftly crafted story that is all the more impressive considering that it is author E. L. Deads' debut as an author, "Wild With All Regrets" will be of particular interest to readers of LGBTQ+ and Historical Fiction.

"Wild With All Regrets" by E. L. Deards is a particularly and well recommended read -- making it a welcome addition to community and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Wild With All Regrets" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: Emma Deards (https://www.authorsanswer.com/interviews/emma-deards) grew up in New York City and earned her undergraduate degree at Barnard College at Columbia University, where she studied Japanese literature and biology. She was then accepted to The University of Edinburgh, where she completed her veterinary degree. She remained in the UK afterward, and since then has split her time between her day job as a vet and her truest passion: writing. Emma has authored a number humor articles for In Practice, a veterinary magazine, and was the recipient in college of two writing awards: Oscar Lee Award and the Harumatsuri Award.

Fault Line
H. N. Hirsch
Pisgah Press
https://pisgahpress.com
9781942016762, $22.95, PB, 260pp

https://www.amazon.com/Fault-Line-H-N-Hirsch/dp/194201676X

Synopsis: Newly minted 25-year-old lawyer Bob Abramson joins the DA's office in San Diego and soon finds himself leading an investigation into the politically charged murder of the mayor's husband, a powerful, wealthy developer with far too many secrets for his wife's political ambitions.

Bob's first encounter with murder occurred four years previously, when his roommate, the scion of an old Boston family, was murdered and the case was investigated by the victim's Harvard professor, Marcus George. As the investigation developed, Bob and Marcus, naturally, fell in love.

Now, Bob has completed law school and landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney in San Diego, and Marcus has accepted a new position at UC San Diego. As they settle in to their new home, they're thrust into the investigation and its political ramification, and they find that a gay subculture roils much of southern California's placidly straight surface.

Critique: Of special and particular attraction to readers with an interest in LBGTQ+ themed mystery novels, "Fault Line" by H. N. Hirsch is richly entertaining, original, and showcases the author's impressive flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that keeps his readers compulsive attention from first page to last. A masterful 'whodunnit', "Fault Line" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections.

Editorial Note: A graduate of the University of Michigan, with advanced degrees from Princeton University, H.N. Hirsch is the Erwin N. Griswold Professor of Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he also held a joint appointment from 2005-2014 in Comparative American Studies; served as Acting Chair of the Department of Politics in 2010-2011; and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 2005-06. His first mystery, SHADE, was published by Pisgah Press in May 2022. He is also the author or editor of Office Hours: One Academic Life (2016); A Theory of Liberty: The Constitution and Minorities (1992); and The Enigma of Felix Frankfurter (1981/2014); and editor of The Future of Gay Rights in America (2005).

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