MLR Press - Gay, Erotic Fiction and Romance at its Best

The Mysterious
By Laura Baumbach
Alex Beecroft
Josh Lanyon

Shadows in Time by Laura Baumbach: Trying to avoid ruin and disgrace, young naive Neal Clifton, wealthy heir to a sizable Boston family fortune faces the illicit and dangerous complication of his first affair with man--a scheming, unscrupulous man with influence and power that reaches beyond the grave. Neal vows to never give into his own unnatural desires again but finds his only hope for escape in the hands (and arms) of stoic silversmith, Peter Ward.

The Wages of Sin by Alex Beecroft: Charles Latham, wastrel younger son of the Earl of Clitheroe, returns home drunk from the theatre to find his father gruesomely dead. He suspects murder. But when the Latham ghosts turn nasty, and Charles finds himself falling in love with the priest brought in to calm them, he has to unearth the skeleton in the family closet before it ends up killing them all.

The Dark Farewell by Josh Lanyon: Newspaper man David Flynn knows a phoney when he sees one, and he's convinced the Spiritualist Medium Julian Devereaux is as fake as a cigar store Indian. And he's absolutely right. But when Julian begins to see bloodstained visions of a serial killer, the only person he can turn to for help is the cynical Mr. Flynn.

Willing Flesh
#1 in the Inspector Raft Mystery Serie
By J. S. Cook

When a series of bizarre murders occur in London's notorious East End, Scotland Yard's Inspector Philemon Raft is called on to solve the crimes, but even he is powerless to explain why the victims are displayed in public places -- or why the killer insists on drilling burr holes in their skulls. With little to go on except the strange red dust found on the victims' palms, Raft must scour the city looking for an explanation. Aided only by his newly-appointed constable Freddie Crook, Raft's investigation takes him into London's most dark and dangerous places, where human predators wait to devour and destroy.

But Raft has an even bigger problem: a casual acquaintance is blackmailing him, and what she knows about his secrets could tear Raft's life to pieces.

The Perils of Praline
By Marshall Thornton

When he falls in love with a contestant on a reality TV show, Peter "Praline" Palmetier decides to leave his home in rural Georgia and, failing to realize this might be considered stalking, travels to Hollywood to find his soul mate, Dave G. Once in tinsel-town he meets a collection of startling, and often horny, characters in his quest. They include a studly steward, a conservative talk show host, the Godfather of the Gay Mafia, and casting assistant Jason Friedman, who always manages to be there in time to save Praline from total disaster. Will Praline find love with the illusive Dave G., or will he recognize the charms of appealing but untelegenic Jason?

circuSEX: a one-handed read
By William Maltese

Jaded? Bored? Looking for something exotic and different?

How about a look-see at dwarf Jeremy Small's "Mr. Not-So-Small"? How about the loving embrace of the "Tarantula Man" with his two extra arms and his three extra eyes, none of the latter seeing anything? Or, might you prefer a liaison with "Dog Boy", or with the "Bearded Lady", or with the "Human Cannon Ball"...?

All of the above are available, but not on the cheap. Money, often lots of it, is what gets you access to after-hours special acts performed by those otherwise removed from the spotlights by do-gooders who successfully black-tar circus sideshows as immoral and inhumane. No matter that sideshows provided so many "special people" for so long with decent livelihoods for themselves and for their families.

Or, might you prefer doing "it" on an elephant, or between the humps of a camel, or in a tiger's cage, or even hanging from the high trapeze, accompanied by Circus Six's center-ring stars available for fun and games -- if you've the hard cash (and hard whatever) needed to join them?

Darrrel Winestein, the "Tattooed Man", is no longer available for extracurricular bookings -- for reasons detailed in circuSex.

The Kiva
#4 in the Tomcat Series
By Stevie Woods

Ian needs a vacation and what better way than joining Mac for a week on one of his trucking runs. Mac has a surprise planned for his lover but it seems that Mac is the one in for a surprise when Ian finds a Native American Kiva in an ancient pueblo. But then Mac begins to act out of character and Ian finds each day becoming harder as Mac's behavior becomes stranger and more threatening. Ian has to discover more about the Anasazi as he comes to suspect there was something dark hidden in the ancient Kiva.

Grit
By William Maltese
Jardonn Smith

Grit permeates each crevice of the Great Depression and the men living through it. This sex-saturated tale from William Maltese and Jardonn Smith is of  have's and have-not's -- who run trains across the Dust Bowl ... who hitch trains to escape poverty and despair.

Bermuda Heat
By P.A. Brown

A letter. A secret. A tragedy. David's mother told him his father died when he was born. His mother lied.

David Eric Laine always believed his father had died in Vietnam before his birth. His mother remarried and he was adopted by his stepfather and grew up knowing Graham Laine as his only father. Forty years later, a letter arrives and David finds out everything he thought was a lie.His father, Joel Cameron, is alive and living in Bermuda where he came from back in 1968 to attend college. He met David's mother, at the time a much more rebellious child of the turbulent sixties. Following David's birth his mother fled back to the safety of her familiar, protected world and the lie was born. Rather than face her shame, David was told his father died a hero in Vietnam.

Now the lies unravel and the newly married Chris and David embark on a journey to discover the truth.

Between the Darkness and Light
By P.A. Brown

A shadow man, an enigma. He is a man who has purpose but no goal. A figure who walks between the darkness and the light.

Detective Russell Hunter emerges from darkness into fine artist Stephen Fischer, darling of the Los Angeles art world. Can these two unravel the mystery surrounding the death of two of L.A's art critics before Stephen becomes the next victim. The downtown Los Angeles financial center is the heart of this thrilling murder mystery and the unwanted love that grows between a cop with a dark secret in his troubled past and an up and coming world class artist.

Vigil
By Z.A. Maxfield

Donte won't be happy until his fragile human lover is immortal. Adin won't be happy until Donte accepts that immortality isn't for him.

After a case of mistaken identity leads Adin to what appears to be the sale of an underage boy named Bran, Adin decides to rescue him and turn him over to the police. Soon it becomes clear that Bran is no ordinary boy. Unless Adin can find out who wants him and why, someone else's plan for Bran will get them both killed.

Adin is confident -- but he's not stupid -- and it doesn't take him long to realize that he'll need Donte by his side every step of the way, if only to answer the one question he asks himself more and more: What else is out there?
( This is the Sequel To Notturno)

Cockeyed
Donald Strachey Mystery Series #11
By Richard Stevenson

When Hunny 'You go, girl!' Van Horn, Albany's flaming-est working-class flamer, wins the state lottery's first billion-dollar payout, his chaotic life gets even messier. It's PI Don Strachey who's brought in to deal with the skeletons tumbling out of Hunny's non-closet, some violent. The eleventh Strachey novel is part mystery, part screwball comedy, and entirely serious in its exploration of the multiple ways of being gay in America.