With the pool at your feet and a cool beverage nearby, summer is the perfect time to pick up these novels and get lost in their pages. Queer thrillers and mysteries have a long history of offering fresh perspectives on traditional modes of crime fiction, whether it’s hard-hitting noir, historical thriller, detective story, or the cozy (the queer cozy, a.k.a. quozy). The genre boasts legendary writers—Joseph Hansen, Val McDermid, Michael Nava, Katherine V. Forrest, Ellen Hart, and Patricia Highsmith, to name a few—and of course, exciting newer voices, a sampling you’ll discover in the round-up of spring and summer releases below.
Each quarter, Queer Crime Writers will highlight the season’s new releases. Queer Crime Writers is an organization that advocates for LGBTQIA+ crime fiction authors and creates community for them. In this inaugural round-up, we included publications from the summer and a few select novels from the spring. This list isn’t exhaustive, so we encourage readers to dive into the genre and explore all it offers. It’s an exciting time for the queer crime writing community as more publishers feature the voices of LGBTQIA+ sleuths and detectives who fight for justice in complicated worlds.
As we enter 2023 Pride Month, many alarming issues are impacting our community. Safety concerns, legislation on trans healthcare, and banned queer books weigh heavily on our minds. LGBTQIA+ voices are needed now more than ever. How can you help? Challenge bans on queer books in your local schools and libraries. Buy a few of these books, review them, share them on social media, and invite the authors to speak at local book clubs. Together we can make a difference.
Spring
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
In Douaihy’s delicious debut novel, the first release from Gillian Flynn’s new imprint, a queer, tattooed, chain-smoking, post-punk nun, Sister Holiday, seeks refuge from her chaotic life by joining an order of four nuns, all decades older than she is. She teaches music at the school adjacent to the convent and performs her duties as a novice. When an arsonist strikes the school with tragic results, Holiday finds greater purpose in pursuing her investigation of the crime. She finds a comrade in the fire investigator, a truly self-possessed woman whose hobby is making perfume. Holiday’s voice is wry and ironic, and the riveting story is poetic, moving, and sometimes shocking.
The Lost Americans, Christopher Bollen
Whether it’s the Greek islands or Venice, Bollen’s evocative settings fuel his gripping, Highsmithian plots and memorable characters. In his new thriller, a weapons technician for a major American defense contractor is found dead on the balcony of his Cairo hotel, an apparent suicide. But his sister, Cate, doesn’t believe it. She travels to Egypt and teams up with a handsome, idealistic gay Egyptian, Omar, to solve the crime. Soon, Cate and Omar find themselves threatened on all sides by arms company executives, secret police, the Egyptian military, and meddling American ex-pats, wondering if they’ll survive.
The Killing Grounds, Joan Tierney
Set in an alternate-reality American Rust Belt, Tierney’s noir novella pushes the serial-killer story in a fresh direction. The plot is a murder mystery in reverse; it opens with the death of a serial killer from our protagonist Bina Morton’s small hometown in New York, who may have murdered Bina’s mother years ago—a mother who abandoned her. To find a way to heal, she must strip away layers of her past and uncover the truth of who her mother was and what happened to her.
Chasing Rembrandt, Richard Stevenson (Dick Lipez)
“Robbers wreak havoc, smashing the glass covers protecting masterpieces and slicing paintings out of their frames. They make off with thirteen works, including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, worth more than half a billion dollars and beloved in the world of art. It is arguably the greatest property theft in human history.” So starts the last Donald Strachey mystery that Stevenson, often described as a founding father of the gay mystery genre, penned before his death in 2022. In the novel, inspired by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, Strachey is hired to find the missing art 30 years after the crime. His client may have discovered the disposition of the artwork but needs Strachey to track down the culprits and convince them to hand it over so he and his client can collect the hefty reward. The result is an engrossing art world caper.
Remain Silent, Robyn Gigl
Trans attorney Erin McCabe, the star of Gigl’s terrific New Jersey-based legal thrillers, finds herself in the crosshairs of suspicion for the murder of a politically connected financier. The time of his death corresponds with Erin’s only visit to him. Law enforcement and politicians would love to see her charged with the crime. In a parallel storyline, Erin represents a mother who is on the run with her trans child, trying to save her from a father that wants her to undergo conversion therapy. Erin is threatened with jail for not revealing their whereabouts. She and her law partner display all kinds of legal wizardry to keep her from being arrested on either charge. When Erin does end up behind bars, we see just how kick-ass a woman she is.
June
BeatNikki’s Cafe, Renee James
James, whose Bobbi Logan series blended rich character development with a thriller’s twists and pacing, returns with another compelling story of a transgender woman’s fight for safety and respect. During the first summer of the Trump presidency, Nikki Finch, owner of a thriving cafe in Chicago, must take justice into her own hands when neo-Nazis, who have been terrorizing the neighborhood, attack her business partner. She also must navigate her fraught relationship with her teenage daughter, who has been poisoned against her by her ex. Nikki struggles to understand her role as a parent while protecting her found family from a dangerous and all-to-credible threat. When it becomes clear that law enforcement won’t protect her, she must find a way to protect herself. The question is: to what lengths will she go?
July
A Crime of Secrets, Ann Aptaker
Aptaker, well-known for her classic noir-inspired Lammy award-winning Cantor Gold series, introduces us to a new lesbian crime-solving duo, Fin Donner and Devorah Longstreet. Set in the lush backdrop of late 19th-century New York, this private investigator duo is a contrast study: Fin is tough and street-smart; Devorah is educated and urbane. Together, they stand apart from their mise en scène; they are lovers and professional women undaunted by the dark elements of a city undergoing great change. In their first case—of what hopes to be many—they must solve the vicious murder of a young woman who was noted for her modern outlook. Why was she silenced?
Desert Deadline, Michael Craft
Craft returns with the second installment in the Dante and Jazz murder mystery series, the first of which, Desert Getaway, was nominated for a 2023 Lilian Jackson Braun Award at the Edgars. Dante is white and gay, a concierge at a vacation-rental outfit; Jazz is black and straight, a private eye on the rebound from a failed marriage. Maude Movay, a reclusive author of romance novels, is facing a tight deadline for a multimillion-dollar deal. So, she checks in at one of Dante’s rentals intending to write a blockbuster, then checks out on a gurney, feet first. It was murder all right. Jazz and Dante, a crime-solving duo rich in contrasts and chemistry, team up again to uncover the culprit.
The Hunt, Kelly J Ford
Anthony Award finalist for Really Bad Things, Ford is known for her gritty queer Southern noir. Her latest, The Hunt, casts an eerie pall over a small-town tradition—the annual Easter hunt for The Golden Egg in Presley, Arkansas. “The Hunter,” a suspected serial killer, has used the event to hunt prey. Nell, who lost her brother to The Hunter as his suspected inaugural kill, has since cared for her nephew to keep him safe. As the town becomes frenzied about finding the golden egg, Nell tries to avoid everything related to the event, but there’s no outrunning her past.
August
The Virgin Homicides by Neil Plakcy
Seasoned Honolulu Detective Kimo Kanapa’aka, in the thirteenth title in the Lambda Literary Award-nominated Mahu series, delves into an investigation with two female victims—a young art college student and a seasoned HR executive—who seem to have nothing in common. Yet, as Kimo and his partner Ray Donne dive deeper into the case, they sense a connection between the two. Navigating the murky waters of teen dating, fashion influencers, an experimental power company, and a group of frustrated young men, Kimo is determined to find the truth. When his family is threatened, the stakes become personal, and Kimo is forced to race against time to bring the killer to justice.
Where the Dead Sleep, Joshua Moehling
Closeted Police Detective and acting Chief of Police Ben Packard return in this second book of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated series. When an early morning call brings Deputy Ben Packard to the scene of a home invasion, he finds Bill Sandersen shot in his bed. Bill was a well-liked local who chased easy money his whole life, leaving bad debts and broken hearts in his wake. Everyone Packard talks to has a story about Bill, but no one has a clear motive for wanting him dead. There’s a hidden history to Sandy Lake that Packard, ever the outsider, can’t see. When someone attempts to kill him, he knows he’s getting close to the dangerous legacy of the quiet Minnesota town.
Murder at the Oasis, David Pederson
The third entry in the Mason Adler series, this novel finds our gay detective at a resort in Palm Springs. He’s traveling with his friend Walter Wingate to enjoy downtime in the gay mecca. Relaxation comes to a screeching halt when first, one, then another guest, is found murdered. The resort’s owner, Marvin Gagliardi, an old friend of Walter’s, falls under suspicion, and Mason investigates to prove his innocence. The handsome local police detective, Brian Branchford, diverts Mason’s focus, mixing crime solving and romance. In the end, will Adler find love and the killer?
September
Mississippi River Mischief, Greg Herren
Multiple award-winning author Herren brings back his beloved go-go boy turned detective Scotty Bradley for another New Orleans-based mystery. Scotty has just bought his first home in French Quarter, and homeownership, it turns out, isn’t all it cracked up to be. He’s relieved for the diversion when Taylor, his “sort-of-nephew,” brings Scotty a case. Taylor’s friend is fighting harassment from an older politician drowning in corruption. When the politician is found dead, it’s clear someone doesn’t want the corruption in St. Jeanne d’Arc Parish exposed.
