Official Selection:
50th Anniversary Edition. Published fifty years ago, a time when being gay was illegal in 49 out of 50 states, Joseph Hansen’s first Dave Brandstetter novel shattered stereotypes and redefined the Private Eye novel as we know it. Set in the mid-1960s, Fadeout centers on the disappearance of a southern California radio personality named Fox Olson. A failed writer, Olson finally found success as a beloved folksinger and wholesome country raconteur with a growing national audience. The community is therefore shocked when Olson’s car is found wrecked, having been driven off a bridge and swept away in a fast-moving arroyo on a rainy night. A life insurance claim is filed by Olson’s widow and the company holding the policy sends their best man to investigate. As Dave Brandstetter begins his investigation he quickly finds that none of it adds up.
Official Selection:
25th Anniversary Edition. It's 1994, an election year when violent crime is rampant, voters want action, and politicians smell blood. When a Latino teenager confesses to the murder of a pretty-boy cokehead outside a gay bar in L.A., the cops consider the case closed. But Benjamin Justice, a disgraced former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, sees something in the jailed boy others don't. His former editor, Harry Brofsky, now toiling at the rival Los Angeles Sun, pries Justice from his alcoholic seclusion to help neophyte reporter Alexandra Templeton dig deeper into the story. Awarded an Edgar by Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel on initial release.
Bonus Selection:
In Report for Murder, we meet self-proclaimed "cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist" Lindsay Gordon – McDermid's pioneering character – as she investigates the vicious murder of the headliner at a fundraising gala who is found garroted with her own cello strings.
Bonus Selection:
Heralded as "the novel of a love society forbids," Patricia Highsmith's 1952 lesbian cult classic recounts a chance meeting between two lonely women that leads to a passionate romance. The basis of the acclaimed 2015 film Carol.