Historical - 20th Century Genre

Word Count: Click here to reveal138000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “I swear to God it was Willoughby. My brother stood not two feet away from me, called me Lina to my face, and pulled Harley into his arms, saying he was sorry, sobbing, and calling him his boy.”   An apparition in Sydney’s fruit and vegetable market leaves the mother of one of Clyde’s best friends believing that her brother, hanged for murder twenty-four years beforehand, has somehow risen from the grave and confronted her. She is adamant that the visitation was real and visits Clyde asking him to investigate the mass murder her brother was supposed to have committed. She believes he was either set up or was covering for someone else’s crime. Could this vision have been a folie à deux, a delusional vision shared by both mother or son? As Clyde investigates, clues lead him to one of Australia’s most famous silent screen actors, a man who, together with his murdered father, becomes intrinsically linked to the mass murder, known as The Killing at Candal Creek. Wheels within wheels, lies, extortion, and coverups lead Clyde to a bloody confrontation on a deserted beach in the tropics. This time, it’s not only his own life at risk but also that of one of his most valued and closest friends.

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Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: "Ed couldn't help it. In the days that followed, he couldn't get the new mailman out of his mind. From the time he had broken up with Cathy Carroll after high school graduation and had devoted himself exclusively to the pursuit of those whose body parts matched his own, Ed had had an image in his mind, a full-blown mental picture of the perfect guy. That first day, when the new mailman dropped a handful of bills into Ed's mailbox, Ed knew he had found him." Told with warmth, humor, and optimism, The Handyman's Dream is a story for everyone who has ever had a fantasy about the perfect mate. Ed Stephens is a small town handyman. He also happens to be gay and lonely. Ed is practical enough to realize that finding a man in Porterfield, Indiana -- population nine thousand -- is unlikely, so he's shocked and amazed when the man of his dreams suddenly begins delivering his mail each day. Suspecting Fate has lent him a helping hand, Ed schemes to meet the mailman, Rick Benton -- hard-working and responsible -- who has moved to Porterfield to lend a helping hand to his sister, a single parent. Rick, it turns out, is gay and lonely as well. When Ed and Rick meet the attraction is spontaneous and mutual, and soon loneliness is forgotten in the joy of falling in love. As their relationship grows and deepens, they find themselves dealing with the same situations every couple faces: the reactions of friends and families, job responsibilities, and whether their love is a strong enough foundation for a long-term relationship. Ed and Rick, though, have another problem to cope with as well -- whether a small, Indiana town is the best place for two men to build a life together in the early 1980's. With a soundtrack of timeless pop classics, the story of Ed and Rick is a heart-warming journey from that special first kiss to the golden moment when one couple realizes their love is strong enough to endure any and all hardships. Gay or straight, you'll enjoy the ride

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Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Autumn 1989 begins as a season of loss for Handyman Ed and his life partner Rick. Their dear friend Doug passes away after a losing battle with AIDS. Effie Maude, the longtime Penfield Manor housekeeper, announces her retirement. Ed and Rick are exhausted and mournful, and despite the advice of friends and family, determined to continue with their regular responsibilities. Little things suddenly become big deals as they struggle to cope with the daily activities at Penfield Manor, and the result is an unfamiliar distance between them. Unexpected houseguests, the trials and tribulations of their foster son Rex, and a new overbearing client of Ed’s with murky intentions complicate their lives even more as they struggle to deal with their loss and find their way back to each other. Fortunately, Ed and Rick do not lack for good friends and compassionate families. While Ed’s mother Norma is preoccupied with her new cookie enterprise, the rest of the family and their friends Gordy, Pete, Muriel, and Dr. Paul are always available for companionship, advice, and the occasional kick in the butt. Ed may be balding, Rick may be covering his gray, and they might argue about who has the worse eyesight, but the genuine love and respect they share for each other enables them to survive the surprises and storms both inside and out through the final months of 1989 and come through it all, ready to meet a new decade.

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Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “Sometimes the hardest part of my job is dealing with human cruelty and its aftermath. It’s almost always instigated by fear. I wonder if we will ever evolve out of that instinct.” Pastor Phil Sturgis in The Handyman’s Summer By the late spring of 1987, Handyman Ed Stephens and his life partner Rick Benton are anticipating a lazy, peaceful, even boring summer. Things do not go as planned as Ed and Rick suddenly find themselves embroiled in mystery, scandal, surprises, and a lesson in both the kindness and cruelty of people. When local bag lady, Evie Fountain, suddenly dies of a stroke, Ed and Rick become interested in her rundown house. Evie’s house turns out to be shrouded not only with overgrown bushes, but also in secrecy. Ed and Rick are drawn into the murky legend of the official town character, determined to discover the truth underneath the rumors that have circulated throughout Porterfield, Indiana, for almost thirty years. When a personal journal is found in the house, they become immersed in a shameful story of small town bigotry and its tragic results. There is plenty of other activity to keep Ed and Rick busy over the summer. Neal Soames, the gay teenager they have been mentoring, graduates high school and suddenly gets cold feet about going away to college. He moves into Penfield Manor while Ed and Rick try to convince him leaving Porterfield is in his best interests. Ed’s friend, Dr. Paul Klarn, calls Ed for help when one of his patients is an unidentified victim of a queer-bashing. Ed and Rick decide to take this young man in as well, creating, as their friend Gordy calls it, “Uncle Ed’s Home for Wayward Homos.” Ed’s mother, Norma, also stirs up drama when she involves Ed in her troubles with the local garden club. Ed develops a scheme to turn the tables on a pushy, obnoxious woman who is determined to run the club in her own best interests. Norma will have another surprise for Ed before the summer is out. “Expect the unexpected,” Norma tells him. Muriel Weisberg, self-proclaimed vision-impaired bitch goddess, is on the scene as well throughout the summer, providing much needed comic relief for Ed. She uses her new role as a columnist for the local newspaper to solve problems, spout her sometimes unconventional wisdom, and to assist in the mystery of Evie’s house. As always, Ed supplies a soundtrack of both oldies and current hits to help him cope with this busy season, one that will, in some ways, change the lives of Ed and his beloved Rick forever. Join these two gallant men as they continue to create an oasis of freedom and acceptance in an otherwise narrow-minded world. Together, hand in hand, still in love, Ed and Rick move triumphantly forward, ready to take on the world.

Word Count: Click here to reveal115000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Warrambool In Gamilaraay, the language of the Kamilaroi peoples of north-western New South Wales, it's the word for The Milky Way. It's also the name of Peter Dixon's homestead and sheep station, situated in the lee of the Liverpool Ranges. In 1947, Peter returns from war, his parents and younger brother dead, the property de-stocked and his older brother, Ron, having emptied out the family bank account and nowhere to be found. The House With a Thousand Stairs is the story of a young man, scarred both on the inside and the outside, trying to re-establish what once was a prosperous and thriving sheep station with the help of his neighbours and his childhood friend, Frank Hunter, the local Indigenous policeman. Enveloped by the world of Indigenous spirituality, the Kamilaroi system of animal guides and totems, Peter and Frank discover the true nature of their predestined friendship, one defined by the stars, the ancestral spirits, and Baiame, the Creator God and Sky Father of The Dreaming. Maliyan bandaarr, maliyan biliirr.

Word Count: Click here to reveal45128 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Welcome to the Mating Games on Ice! After discovering the nefarious actions of Councilman Troy, Ricky, Ian, and Joop, along with their mates and Councilman Eagan and his mate, are on a mission to stop Troy’s plans. To do that, they must attend The Winter Mating Games in Siberia. Darby Sellers has always wanted to find his mate. Unfortunately, the summer games did not pan out for him. Overhearing the conversation about going to the winter games, Darby decides to hitch a ride, dragging his best friend, Jayden Donovan, along. Councilman Camden Krill was just learning about the abominations Troy was creating to take over as ruler of their world. While waiting to meet with Eagan and his friends he receives a call from a man with the most musical voice Krill had ever heard. While making their way to the mating game grounds, Eagan's men had been attacked, some were taken hostage, and the rest were dispersed into the Siberian lands. Being the special shifter he was, Krill had little to fear. However, this night he feared a lot. He feared that those taken would be killed, or worse. He feared those left out in the freezing lands would perish. His biggest fear was that the little lady bug shifter with the lyrical voice would die before he ever got the chance to meet him in person and discover if fate had finally shined on him and brought him his true mate.

Word Count: Click here to reveal67429 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: During the War to End All Wars, Roddy Sayer survived his trip down the Ruzizi with his beloved, Charlie Pearson. He survived the sinking of the Konigin Marie Christine he and Charlie engineered. But now it’s 1922, his beloved is dead after working on a dig in Egypt to unearth royal tombs, and Roddy is alone, with odd, erotic dreams of an Egyptian prince ensnared by the machinations of a high priest. Is he losing his mind? Thomas Fortescue-Smythe, who flirted with Roddy and made advances toward him before, finds him again. Tommy persuades Roddy to come to his family home in England, and eventually, to share his bed and his body. But when Roddy sees an Egyptian man and knows it is the same man who was the high priest in his dreams, can he keep himself and Tommy safe?

Word Count: Click here to reveal135000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “Please donate generously to Mrs. Roosevelt’s charity. Every penny raised from this series of concerts along the eastern coast of the United States will help with the resettlement and care of child refugees from war-torn continental Europe.” Over dinner with J Edgar Hoover in Washington, Tommy Haupner is shocked to learn that his forgotten and empty Swiss bank account has been topped up regularly with staggering sums of money … deposits that originate in Nazi Germany. Could this bank account have something to do with anonymous letters posted to him at home in London, their contents a single blank slip of paper on which are written two words: NAZI GOLD? When he returns to Britain, he soon discovers that not only is his own life in danger but also those of his nearest and dearest who become pawns in a savage game of revenge.

Word Count: Click here to reveal140000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Two years after finishing his tour of duty in the Occupational Forces in Japan, Damson O'Reilly arrives in Siena, Italy. Sight-unseen at a local auction, he buys an abandoned Tuscan farmhouse in which he aims to write, paint, and start a new life. The house, passed over at auction, becomes an impulse buy when it's put up for a final time. He's prepared for a semi-ruin, happy to turn his hand to renovating the house - however, what he's totally unprepared for are three dead bodies, one of which he stumbles over when he arrives at La Mensola, the name of his isolated farmhouse on the road between Siena and Montepulciano. Against the backdrop of a series of grisly murders, The Road to Montepulciano is the story of a young man, still suffering the scars of war, who, despite betrayal of trust and surrounded by a complex web of lies, finds friendship, love and the warmth of community.

Word Count: Click here to reveal47500 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Michael O’Leary is devasted by the loss of his beloved Stiles Long. The thought of returning to their home in St. Louis is more than he can bare. Having received the news that, he has inherited a Manor in England, he decides to go there. Hoping that he can find a way to begin his life anew. What he finds are secrets. So many secrets, he can’t determine who is friend and who is foe. He is now Lord Whit. The owner of a vast amount of land, a village, named Whitcomb, employees on grounds, land tenants and villagers all look to him for guidance. Michael also finds family. His cousins George, who is nearly his double, and Evaline, whose personality changes with the wind. There’s also, Vicar Joseph Williams, a man who isn’t what he appears. A visit from his dear friend, Lizzie Ferguson, leaves him missing his old life even more. Just before the new year, he receives a haunting telegram from Lizzie, promising the new year was going to bright for him. Without Stiles, his life seems lost, then New Year’s Day 1912 arrives and…

Word Count: Click here to reveal128000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: As bombs rain down over London during the Blitz, Major Tommy Haupner negotiates the rubble-filled streets of Bloomsbury on his way to perform at a socialite party. The explosive event of the evening is not his virtuosic violin playing, but the 'almost-blond' American who not only insults him, but then steals his heart. The Seventh of December follows a few months in the lives of two Intelligence agents in the early part of World War Two. Set against the backdrop of war-torn occupied Europe, Tommy and his American lover, Henry Reiter, forge a committed relationship that is intertwined with intrigues that threaten the integrity of the British Royal Family and the stability of a Nation at war. Neither bombs nor bullets manage to break the bond that these men form in their struggle against Nazism and the powers of evil.

Word Count: Click here to reveal13069 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: When Leo Wayland accepts a job as head of the new horror unit at Maiden Studios, he knows what is expected. Make cheap movies that earn their money back fast. It doesn't matter that he dislikes horror. He just needs to escape his assistant director's position at a rival studio. But he didn't expect to be assigned a terrible title and a leading man, all before he even had a script, or that his leading man would be Everett Reid, the actor who rejected a very young Leo’s advances, only to disappear from movies altogether a few years later in a cloud of scandal. Everett Reid will do anything for a chance to get back the career he lost and away from teaching at a theater camp for children. And if it means working with Leo Wayland again, he can do that too. Especially now that Leo is all grown up and not so untouchable. With only three weeks, a flamboyant stage actor, twelve scantily clad women, and a sound stage full of coffins may not seem like the makings of something great. But really, that all depends on what you are hoping for.

Word Count: Click here to reveal144000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: New York City, 1924 Once their paths cross, their worlds will never be the same. Danny Moore and his crew only meant to rob the hotel suites of rich guests. He wasn’t supposed to find himself in gangster Ricky il Sacchi’s room. And il Sacchi wasn’t supposed to wind up dead. Now Danny has the attention of another notorious gangster. Carmine Battaglia is intrigued by the Irish thieves who would have made off with a huge score if not for il Sacchi’s death. They’re cunning, careful, and exactly what he needs for his rum running operation. But Danny’s already lost two brothers to the violence between New York’s Irish and Sicilian gangs, and he’s not about to sell his soul to Carmine. With gangster’s blood on his hands, Danny needs protection, whether he likes it or not. And that’s to say nothing of the generous pay, which promises to pull him and his crew—not to mention their families—out of destitution. Working together brings Danny and Carmine to a détente, then to something so intense neither can ignore it. Something nearly enough to make them both forget the brutal tensions between their countrymen. But the death of Ricky il Sacchi hasn’t been forgotten. And someone is determined to make Danny bleed for it. The Venetian and the Rum Runner is a 144,000-word gay historical romantic suspense novel set during Prohibition and the Roaring Twenties. CW: graphic violence, PTSD

Word Count: Click here to reveal60711 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Questioning (Click here to hide)

Summary: Gay retro with a twist Even after three Gaslight Mystery novels—on the first anniversary of their meeting—uptight, closeted Simon is still more out of than into Michael’s bed. And now a thin but attractive man emerges from the smoke of the gay pub Paddy’s. It’s Dashiell Hammett. And he’s not there for an autograph signing. His presence is the catalyst for a profound change in the lives of both 1920s private eyes as they face Mafia bootleggers, careless revolvers, and the dead end of their ever-edgy partnership. Hammett’s unexpected arrival forces the PIs to work apart. Simon, jealous of the man’s ties with his sometime-lover, must act alone to track down a group of dedicated criminals. Michael, remembering his uneasy past with the hollow-chested operative, barely manages to keep his wits after discovering the disappearance of his partner. A year to develop…a day to destroy. What will happen to the private eye duo of Michael and Simon? The fourth of the Gaslight Mystery novels

Word Count: Click here to reveal60135 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Gay retro with a twist The time is 1923, and the place is a fantasy city in Ireland. Two unlikely men have formed a partnership: good-natured Michael, who keeps a serious secret; and sulky Simon, who has plenty of reasons to be angry at the world. Michael has stalked the standoffish Simon from the beginning, and Simon has consistently rebuffed him...yet not enough for Michael to give up a dedicated pursuit of the handsome investigator. As private eyes, the men have a case to solve: to find more than a score of stolen paintings, and especially one small valuable work of art worth more than all the others. But the case grows more complex the deeper they look into it. Soon Michael and Simon find themselves searching not just for a thief, but for a city-wide ring of criminals. And the closer they get to the paintings, the closer they find themselves to a killer. Into this mix steps a man named Moshe—a pesky, secretive, nosy man who is nevertheless a brilliant investigator himself. He gives both the men fits, burrowing like a tick into their very private affairs, so close they have a hard time evading him. Can the PIs solve a series of crimes and take care of the interfering Moshe, while driving their own intense relationship all the way to the bone? The third of the Gaslight Mystery novels

Word Count: Click here to reveal54000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Silas Thornwood's worst nightmare has come to life. Darien's familiar Pip is gravely injured, and Darien and Jasper have been kidnapped. Someone ruthless and violent is holding the man Silas loves prisoner, for purposes he doesn't want to imagine. Silas needs help from his friends to locate and rescue Darien. And when he does, those responsible― whether sorcerer, human, or demon― are going to be truly, utterly sorry…

Word Count: Click here to reveal84000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sam and Ulysses have finally moved in together. Unfortunately, the new apartment is not quite the safe haven they'd hoped for--their neighbors have a ghost problem, and the building has a spider infestation. To make matters more complicated, Ulysses's brother Laz is back from Vietnam, and he's not happy about Sam's presence in Ulysses's life. Laz's anger isn't their only challenge. When their magical bond starts acting up, Ulysses's increasing discomfort and attempts to fix it drive a wedge between him and Sam just when it becomes apparent that the spiders are no accident and a shadowy cult may mean them harm. Maybe they're not done with Sam's grandfather, Julius Sterling, after all.