33
BOOKS
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He Queer sleuthed,
she
sleuthed
mystery writers explore the trail
ir Arthur
Conan
Doyle.
Agatha
Christie. Ray
mond Chandler.
Joseph Hansen.
You may not
recognize the last
name on this list
of legendary mys
tery writers, hut
Joseph Hansen created one
Hansen was a true of the mystery genre’s first
pioneer. The
gay protagonists
author, who died
of heart failure Nov. 24 at the age of 81, creat
ed one of the genre’s first gay protagonists.
Hansen penned a 12-book series starring a
gay Los Angeles detective/insurance claims
adjuster named Dave Brandstetter. He pub
lished the first installment, Fadeout, in 1970
and completed the series in 1991 with A Com
pany of Old Men.
Applauded for his sensitive treatment of the
AIDS crisis, he was, above all, a crackerjack
storyteller. The Los Angeles Times called him
“the most exciting and effective writer of the
classic private-eye novel working today.”
Hansen’s legacy lives orj in queer mystery
fiction, as seen in two recent offerings.
blazed by the late Joseph Hansen.
by
S tephen B lair
You may know him from Amuse Bouche, the
first book in this series. But don’t fret if you
haven’t read that installment. Flight of Aquavit
gives newcomers plenty of opportunities to catch
up with Russell’s antics.
Named after a strong
Nordic aperitif, Aquavit
mostly takes place in the
detective’s hometown of
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
It’s Christmastime in
Canada, which means it’s
really, really cold outside.
Our hero packs away lots
of Starbucks lattes and his
mother’s fatty cooking, making him a bit self-
conscious about his usually trim bod. He takes
his dog for walks, “hoping to ward off the sev
eral pounds 1 could feel attaching themselves
to my tummy like barnacles of fat.”
Funny, I can’t remember Sam Spade or Her
cule Poirot ever fretting about their weight.
Leave it to a queer detective to put vanity first.
Russell’s mission is to find “Loverboy,” a
dangerous and mysterious figure who black
mails a successful, closeted businessman. His
search takes him to gay chat rooms on the
Internet and to New York City, where he’s
tempted to suspend his ethics and sleep with a
foxy suspect.
Flight of Aquavit
by Anthony Bidulka; Insomniac Press, 2004;
$29.90 softcover
eet Russell Quant. He’s cute, he’s queer,
and he’s an ex-cop turned private inves
tigator.
M eaitingout
books Witchfire and Death by Prophecy. The
action begins on an island in the Bermuda
Triangle, where a bunch of baddies murder
members of an anthropological team to secure
a powerful crystal that can change the course
of history.
Meanwhile in Palm Springs, Connor and
her girlfriend, Laura, learn that an innocent
young woman has been killed because a cult
wants her inheritance money. The ladies head
to York, England—headquarters of the dastard
ly cult. With a little help from family and
psychic friends, they infiltrate the cult and
unleash the murderous wrath of some power-
hungry schemers.
Following the plot so far? It only gets more
outrageous from here on out, as Maddison
swaddles ludicrous plot developments in florid,
laughable prose. “For a few brief moments,
every person in the room felt connected to
every particle of creative energy extant in the
universe,” the author writes in one of many
New Age moments. Suffice it to say that crys
tals play a vital role in every stage of the plot.
Despite—or maybe because—of its excesses,
The Eleventh Hour is a fun, strange read that
doubles as a substance-free acid trip. Maddison
deserves kudos for pushing her cosmic vision to
the limits.
She can’t be forgiven, however, for opening
each chapter with quotes by the likes of Shake
speare and George Eliot. Sorry, honey, but your
literary pretensions don’t disguise this hxtk’s
hamminess. You might as well play Beethoven
at a tractor pull. JH
eatingout
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Casual Dming
Overall, Aquavit is a quick, entertaining
read that’s occasionally brought down by pre
dictable plotting and weak character develop
ment. It’s not particularly sexy, either, since
Russell only ends up in one or two compromis
ing positions.
But these flaws don’t really detract from the
fun when you’re in the saucy company of a pri
vate dick who’s not ashamed to say, “Feeling
like Superman and Wonder Woman rolled into
one, I grabbed the edge of the d<x)r and gave it
a mighty tug.”
The Eleventh Hour
by Lauren Maddison; Alyson Publications, 2004;
$28.90 softcover
f you can suspend your disbelief for 300
pages, you’re in for quite a wild ride. How
can you not like a book
that spotlights psychic
detectives, magical crystals
and characters whose souls
date back to the lost city of
Atlantis?
The Eleventh Hour is a
part of Lauren Maddison’s
Connor Hawthorne series,
which also includes the
I
eatingout
i S tephen B lair is a Portland free-lance writer
, whose current guilty pleasure is season four of
i Dawson’s Creek on DVD.
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