Books: Cobalt (Valentine and Lovelace #2) by Nathan Aldyne (1984)

 “The setting? Provincetown, circa the early 1980s, otherwise known as Sodom-by-the-Sea. The place? Only the hottest party in town, darling, and you’re invited! Clarisse, for one, is thrilled to strap on her dancing shoes: Not only is there an entire gaggle of gay men (who better to appreciate her divine diva-tude?), but some of them are very pretty (and Ma’amselle does like her eye-candy). Even better, a murder is announced, and since it’s nobody that anyone knew well, Clarisse is free to disregard all the niceties of Oh, how terrible, and concentrate entirely on poking into other people’s business. Valentine’s on hand to help, of course, though a little distracted—I mean, if a gorgeous gay bartender can’t find love in 1980s P’town, he might as well hand in his Donna Summer albums.”

Despite being the second book in a series of four, Cobalt (much like McDowell’s Jack and Susan series), appears to reboot itself, as no mention is made of their previous bout with murder. The book gives a great view of the pre-AIDS era 1980s and the party scene in Provincetown, with Daniel Valentine working at the Throne and Scepter bar, while browsing for Mr. Right. This time, as well, Clarisse nabs a hunky cop all her own. But what stays the same is murder and when a hunky drug dealer ends up washed up on the sea shore, both Valentine and Lovelace must try and figure out what is going on. As the story unfolds, they get to hear endless secrets, the jealousies of many gay men, and lies behind the beautiful faces around them, all which can be a motive for murder. 

As with the first book, there is a lot of merriment on top of the murder, drugs and seemly contemporaneous aspect of gay men that remains the same in 2026 as did in the early 80s. Still, Valentine and Lovelace continue their breezy Nick and Nora, Thin Man-style relationship, the biting humor that only dear friends can get away with. 

But these books (and the ones written under McDowell’s own name, along with Axel Young), are such strange period pieces and maybe that’s why these works (outside his Gothic Horror tales) are mostly out of print and hard find on the secondary market (then, when found, tend to be very expensive). The sad fact is these books will only appeal to collectors and (probably) by gay men who either survived the early AIDS years or came of age after, and are curious to know what those pre-HIV days were like (though bitchy queens remain a constant no matter what the decade is). So as funny McDowell and Dennis Schuetz can be here, you can’t help realize that the whole jump-into-bed-with-any-hot-man-around will come to a chilling end, because AIDS was on the horizon and places like "P-town" were going to be devastated by it. 

I continue to hunt for book three and four, but as noted, these books are out of print, though they are offered as an ebook – but I like physical books. While Valancourt Books still offers McDowell’s horror tales, the last company to offer these gay-themed mysteries appears to been Felony & Mayhem Press from about a dozen years ago. And, at one time, Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, who specialized in LGBT works of various genres, also released these books. I occasionally come across them, but even they have become expensive.