Books: Steps Going Down by Joseph Hansen (1985)

“Darryl Cutler knows a good thing when he sees it -- and old Stewart Moody's fortune is the best thing he's ever seen. So Darryl takes care of the dying old man, knowing the promised inheritance is well worth the wait. Or so Darryl believes, until something even better comes along. When Chick Pelletier, a young sunny-haired would-be actor appears on the scene Darryl is obsessed: he'll do anything to please Chick. But Darryl has finally met the hustler who can out-hustle him, and the stakes are getting higher all the time.” 

I’m unsure of writer Joseph Hansen’s motives here, as the book plays out more like a psycho-drama between two men willing to do anything to maintain the glamorous lifestyle of the rich. Darryl is a hustler, but seemly with a bit of moral fiber, where Chick (a sort of hapless take on Patricia Highsmith’s Talented Mr. Ripley?) has no scruples and easily convinces Darryl to commit murder (they almost leap right to it). But, as the cover says, it’s a “tawdry” tale that makes the reader a bit uncomfortable to read it to completion. There is at no point in the book where anyone is likable, even Darryl’s life choices can be blamed on his horrible, good for nothing Mother, who chipped any potential goodness out him when he was a child. She’s definitely a domineering woman who got hurt and made Darryl pay for it through insults and uncaring upbringing. I think, though, her way of emasculating her son was enough for him to move out of Portland, so I kind of felt the Darryl accidentally running over and killing a 11 year-old boy was a bit overkill. 

Much of the book involves the on again off again relationship between Chick and Darryl, two people who should never be together, but somehow keep crashing into each other, keep needing each other, both loving and hating each other. The other plot point involves plagiarizing the script to a TV movie, which in 1984 probably sounded realistic, but forty-two years later seems a bit silly. 

There is a nice plot twist at the end, one I certainly did not see coming, but it’s about the only thing I can recommend here, because unlike Hansen’s Dave Brandsetter books, which went out its way to show the darkness at the heart of Southern California lifestyle, the only thing Steps Going Down is Hansen’s prose, which makes the book a worthy read for fans of the writer. Otherwise, this book will leave you a bit queasy and more than feeling a little bit dirty.

Books: Cobalt (Valentine and Lovelace #2) by Nathan Aldyne (1982)

 “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 now 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, those books are out of print, though they are offered as an ebook – but I like physical books. While Valancourt Books still offers some of McDowell’s horror tales (in both paperback and digital versions), the last company to offer these gay-themed mysteries in paperback appears to been Felony & Mayhem Press from about a dozen years ago (though, again, a digital format are still available). 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.

Books: The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross (2015)

 

“The Laundry is recovering from a devastating attack (as seen in the last book, The Rhesus Chart, which also left Bob’s boss dead) and when average citizens all over the country start to develop supernatural powers, the police are called in to help. With Bob the new Eater of Worlds, he’s off doing his thing, which leaves his wife, Dr. Dominique “Mo” O'Brien –an extrodinary agent in her own way- tapped to lead a new position within the Laundry, but more for UK intelligence world. When occult powers threaten the realm, they'll be there to clean up the mess - and deal with the witnesses. So Mo appointed as official police liaison, but in between dealing with police bureaucracy, superpowered members of the public and disgruntled politicians, Mo discovers to her horror that she can no longer rely on her marriage, nor on the weapon that has been at her side for eight years of undercover work, the possessed violin known as 'Lecter'”.

The Annihilation Score is the sixth book in Stross’ Laundry Files series, with its blending of Cthulhu Mythos horror and spy fiction and bureaucratic comedy. So the book starts in a pretty dark, depressing place, at least for Bob and Mo, which the growth you want in a long-running series (more on that later). And much like Bob’s early days in the Laundry, you get a sense that Mo is out of depth here and no one seems to question why. But, as well, the shift in the protagonist is startling for me and while I like Mo, I came for the adventures of Bob. Still, the book is sharp, somewhat fresh (the ideas here are not new), and sufficiently tongue-in-cheek about the whole possibility of people mistaking themselves for superheroes. And Stross is clearly teasing this out towards a more climactic event related to the existential threat that is CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, but overall, I felt cheated Bob was missing from the tale, even though Stross succeeds in making Mo’s voice distinct from Bob’s.

I did some further looking ahead in this series and discovered that with this book, until it’s finale, Stross will be featuring different protagonist, with Bob only popping in book eight, and the final book in the series (which was released in January 2026). There is a novella in which Bob Howard appears in, explaining his absences from the seventh novel in the series, The Nightmare Stacks and the beginning of the eighth, but overall Stross appears to expanding his universe because either there is not much more he can reveal about Bob Howard, Mo O’Brien, and the Laundry or it’s just another publishers desire not to end a successful series, so they shift the plot a bit, introduce new characters and let them handle a half-dozen titles before finally pulling the plug.

Books: Wicked Stepmother by Axel Young (1983)

“Seducing a proper Bostonian was easy. Making him die of a heart attack a week after the wedding was hardly any trouble at all. Now she has money, social status, everything she has cunningly schemed to get since she was a poor little girl. Everything except the Brookline mansion and the multi-million dollar trust fund left to the three children. But what wicked stepmother couldn't get rid of three children? Jonathan, too smart for his own good and suspicious about his father's death, has to be the first to go. Then there's pretty, spoiled Verity, hooked on cocaine and perpetually drunk - who'd ask any questions if she died suddenly? And clever Cassandra, just out of college and beginning a career as a literary editor, will simply have to get over being dead.” 

Much of Wicked Stepmother plays out like parody of early trashy Jackie Collins tales of the uber rich and their personal problems about how they can stay rich and what they’re willing to do make sure the money never dries up. Written by Michael McDowell in collaboration with Dennis Schuetz, it’s lacks the depth and breadth of Blood Rubies, but I think that’s the point. It’s supposed to by campy fun and neither writer disappoints. It’s a fast paced thriller, populated with characters that you either love, or love to hate. It has sex, drugs and rock and roll. It has money, power and real estate. It’s like Dynasty only classier. 

It does come up short of being perfect, and everyone seems a bit blissfully ignorant about what is going on here, and then there’s a 20 bedroom house where a bunch of unbelievable coincidence begins to pile up, which no one seems to gleam onto (the deaths don’t seem to pique the interests of the police), but the wry humor and social satire is makes up for some of it. But the naivety of the siblings is pretty staggering, though.

 

Books: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (2023)

“The Barnes family are in trouble. Until recently, they ran the biggest business in town, now they’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – and that’s just the start of their problems. Dickie and Imelda’s marriage is hanging by a thread; straight-A student Cass is careening off the rails; PJ is hopelessly in debt to the school bully. Meanwhile the ghosts of old mistakes are rising out of the past to meet them, but everyone’s too wrapped up in the present to see the danger looming.”

 

While I do enjoy books about dysfunctional families, and sometimes-sad ones at that, but when I’m committing myself to a long book (which I’m increasingly divesting from as I grow older), I’m also looking for a bit of happiness within this 650 page tale. It’s there, but it comes more reflectively from each of the characters past. And in the present, set around the global 2008 recession, future happiness seems not be forthcoming in anyone’s life.

 

All of Barnes family has some issues and all seem impossible to fix. Still, they’re all identifiable problems. We have Dickie’s hidden past that rather explains his current problems (and despite his sort unlikableness, he is, for me, gets more interesting as the book progresses). His wife Imelda, who was expected to marry Dickie’s younger (and more popular) brother Frank until his tragic death, who then deals with her marriage with Dickie by shopping (and who has a sort of puppy-love for Maurice, the boys very successful father who upped and moved to Portugal).  Cass, the straight A student who wants to escape her dull small town life for Dublin with her friend Elaine (who she might have a crush on), and PJ the preteen schoolboy who is a slave of his mobile phone and playing games, and who seems a bit lost.

 

A few things in this overlong book bother me, mostly in the way Cass treats her parents. While both Cass and PJ are millennials, and both Dickie and Imelda seem to be not fully invested in their kids, but I’ve grown weary of the smart-mouth kids. It’s funny on TV and movies, and I guess, this novel, but It makes me glad I never had kids (my own mother might disagree with the fact that all my siblings and I waited until we were grown adults to take my Mom to task).

 

In the end, while I had some tribulations of whether to finish this brick of novel (it sometimes went on and on and on), but I was curious how this would all end. Good or bad, though, writer Paul Murray keeps the ending ambiguous.