Blackmail, My Love

Lambda Award 2015 for Best Gay Mystery! Josie OConner travels to San Francisco in 1951 to locate her gay brother, a private eye investigating a blackmail ring targeting lesbians and gay men. Jimmys friends claim that just before he disappeared he became a rat, informing the cops on the bar community. Josie adopts Jimmys trousers and wingtips, to clear his name, halt the blackmailers, and exact justice for too many queer corpses. Along the way she rubs shoulders with a sultry chanteuse running a dyke tavern called Pandoras Box, gets intimate with a red-headed madam operating a brothel from the Police Personnel Department, and conspires with the star of Finocchios, a dive so disreputable its off limits to servicemen so every man in uniform pays a visit. Blackmail, My Love is an illustrated murder mystery deeply steeped in San Franciscos queer history, as established academic and first-time novelist Katie Gilmartins diverse set of characters negotiate the risks of same-sex desire in a dangerous era. Set in such legendary locations as the Black Cat Cafe, the Fillmore, the Beat movements North Beach, and the Tenderloin, Blackmail, My Love is a singular, stunning introduction to a new author and to gay noir.