Strachey's Folly

A Donald Strachey Mystery, Book 7 - In Washington, D.C., to view the AIDS Memorial Quilt, gay P.I. Donald Strachey, his lover, Timmy, and Timmy's old friend Maynard from their Peace Corps days, are startled to discover a quilt panel for an ex-lover of Maynard. The trouble is Jim Suter isn't dead and was spotted in Mexico barely two weeks earlier. Suter is a golden-haired, back-room, right-wing operative. He's also a breaker of gay men's hearts ... with an angry, resentful cast of hundreds left in his dust. Later in the evening, when Maynard is gunned down in his driveway in a seemingly random attack, a desperate note from Suter is discovered in Maynard's mailbox urging silence and warning of extreme danger. Police are called in but no one seems quite on the level: is there corruption in the local police? An ex-congresswoman, Betty Krumfutz, and subject of a recent messy public divorce, employed Suter and may have vandalized the Suter quilt panel. As Timmy's paranoia of deep cross-connections ratchets up, Strachey finds himself headed for Mexico in search of possible drug cartel involvement. Written over a period of three decades, the Donald Strachey series authentically chronicles gay life as it unfolded across upstate New York, Washington and elsewhere. An author's note is included. "A gripping, fast-paced mystery." - Booklist "Sassy and sexy ... Don Strachey is a private dick who really earns his title." - Armistead Maupin "Strachey departs from the classic noir protagonist in two crucial respects. First, he's an openly gay man firmly embedded in Albany's late 70s gay scene. Second, he's funny and sane, not broody and neurotic - the anti-Philip Marlowe. The first aspect gives [this series] its historical and cultural value and the second is what makes it a pleasure, a joy, to read." - Michael Nava