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Word Count: 71000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: Berlin 1933: When the parties stop...the dying begins SHORT LISTED FOR 2023 MYSTERY LAMMY AWARD The city that’s been a beacon of liberation during the 1920s is about to become a city of deadly oppression. BBC foreign correspondent Simon Sampson risks his life in a bid to save thousands of gay men from the growing Nazi threat. This is the second in the Simon Sampson mystery series. The first, A Death in Bloomsbury, was hailed as ‘a good old-fashioned John Buchan-esque mystery reworked for the twenty-first century’. Simon moves to Berlin where he meets British author Christopher Isherwood and his lover Heinz. He’s also reunited with his banter-partner Florence Miles, better known to her friends as Bill. She’s recruited him into the British intelligence services and he’s got the task of hunting down communist spies. But when Simon is ordered to spy on an old college friend, his loyalties are brought into question. Who are his real enemies? And how much can he trust his masters?
Word Count: 311000
Character Identities: Gay, Lesbian
Summary: Everyone has secrets… but some are fatal. 1932, London. Late one December night Simon Sampson stumbles across the body of a woman in an alleyway. Her death is linked to a plot by right-wing extremists to assassinate the King on Christmas Day. Simon resolves to do his patriotic duty and unmask the traitors. But Simon Sampson lives a double life. Not only is he a highly respected BBC radio announcer, but he’s also a man who loves men, and as such must live a secret life. His investigation risks revealing his other life and with that imprisonment under Britain’s draconian homophobic laws of the time. He faces a stark choice: his loyalty to the King or his freedom. This is the first in a new series from award-winning author David C. Dawson. A richly atmospheric novel set in the shadowy world of 1930s London, where secrets are commonplace, and no one is quite who they seem.
Word Count: 51700
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: The Legend of the Ghost Train continues: 1930’s Harlan County Kentucky Boone Douglas and Tucker Winchester are from different worlds, both knew that being homosexual could be a death sentence in this backwoods hell. Their love blossomed in spite of everything. Two men find love, during a difficult time for the Appalachian states, where many lived in poverty. They struggled, working long days in coal mines for pennies. There were also hostilities between mining companies and the unions who wanted to rally the mine workers. There’s a reason it’s called Bloody Harlan County. A greedy man, a cave full of miners, and two lovers suffered the worst fate imaginable. Present Craig Waterson, a descendant of Tucker, fell down an abandoned air shift leading to a caved in mine. He dreamed or walked through the past seeing Boone and Tucker fall in love, then lose everything. When he awoke, he discovered that Tucker’s ghost had followed him to the present with a request. Craig, Tucker, and Doug Harper, Boone’s great nephew, work together to recover the remains of the miners who were killed in the Copperhead Mining Accident. Many secrets have to be uncovered before Boone and Tucker can find peace or Craig and Doug can find their own happily ever after.
Word Count: 95000
Character Identities: Bisexual, Gay
Summary: 1973 – At 53 years old, Bill, hadn’t expected to run into Bobby when he signed up for that medical convention in Houston. Fair to say they didn’t exactly part on good terms last time. Twenty years later, is Bill ready to finally admit his feelings, his sexuality, and to gather his courage to conquer his old lover and friend once more? A second chance romance with flashbacks to young love, addressing the struggles of coming out in an unwelcoming environment and building the life you really want.
Word Count: 34000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: In 1920, a werewolf attack changed Malachi Powers’s life forever. Now, a decade later, Malachi lives near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, as a lone wolf, avoiding humans and other werewolves alike. Two young men, Roger and Jonathan, arrive on the beach below Malachi’s cottage with a boat full of illegal hooch. Captivated by his unexpected visitors, Malachi wants them to stay. But bringing the men into his life would mean letting them in on his secret—and endangering his heart. Once again, Malachi’s life is changing. Forever. This book includes a scene in which the main character spies, without consent, on two people having sex. It also contains references to past sexual assault and underage male prostitution.
Word Count: 50000
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: A magical bookshop holds the keys. When Mason Chynoweth inherits an old house in small-town New Zealand, he hopes to discover what happened to his great-great uncle Lewis after he returned from the war in 1945. Mason’s first encounter with the property is thankfully reassuring—his sensitive psychic powers aren’t triggered and he has a calm sense of coming home. Elijah Whitaker arrives in Kedgetown for an extended visit with his aunts. He’s quickly drawn to Mason and offers to help him try to find some answers in the dusty old house. It soon becomes clear that Mason is keeping secrets, but Elijah has a few secrets of his own. Like his closely guarded knowledge of the hidden supernatural world, and the fact that many of the townspeople are psi and supernaturals. What is the connection between the house and Postscript, the town’s enigmatic bookshop? Mason’s glimpses of the past give some clues, but not enough to make sense of the puzzle. When a hidden journal comes to light, the true story of Lewis’s journey is revealed, and his path and Mason and Elijah’s begin to intertwine.
Word Count: 71,288
Character Identities: Gay
Summary: The Sebring family has been involved with espionage for centuries, and as the firstborn son, Anthony Sebring II has every intention of fulfilling his parents’ expectations. To that end, when the United States is thrust into the Second World War, Tony enlists in the Navy, eager to enter the war and do his part to defeat the Axis powers that threaten the freedom and safety of his beloved Country. Instead, however, he finds himself assigned to a position in DC, working surreptitiously with his father. Tony is gay and is comfortable with his homosexuality, although he isn’t able to act on it -- his devotion to his country overshadows that. Meanwhile, his father is unaware and arranges a marriage with a local girl. Before Tony can refuse, Allegra reveals she’s already married to a young soldier of whom her parents disapprove, and she begs Tony for help. As a gentleman, he can’t say no, but this causes problems with his siblings, Jefferson, Bryan, and Portia, who are upset he never told them he was involved with a young lady. While Tony is fiercely devoted to his siblings, most especially his youngest brother, he can’t divulge Allegra’s secret to them, since it isn’t his to reveal. Things have a way of coming out, however, especially when they learn Allegra is pregnant. When Tony refuses to marry her, even after their meddling fathers threaten to have her marriage annulled, he’s banished to London to work with an obscure branch of British security. Some months later, the war in Europe ends and he learns he’s to be sent to the Pacific Theater. En route, he stops in New York, where he takes the opportunity to see his siblings, only to be told by the woman he’d thought was his mother that he isn’t a Sebring, and he’s never to contact the only people he loves -- the secret about his birth could ruin everything he holds dear. Tony leaves without revealing this to them. But Sebrings, no matter what their age, have the ability to ferret out secrets. How will they react when they learn the truth of his birth, and how will Tony deal with the loss of the one person who means the world to him?
