Some readers of the Hardesty series have complained that what started out as a gay version of hard-boiled detective fiction ultimately morphs into an overly conventional romance that mirrors too closely a heterosexual model. However, most readers will find such a view itself too prescriptive and not altogether accurate. The union of Hardesty and Quinlan, while tender, is neither saccharine nor imitative of heterosexual unions. It is also leavened with the wit and humor that have been the saving grace of many gay men.

Grey's more recent "John Series" features Eliot Smith as an amateur detective and consists so far of two novels: His Name is John (2008) and Aaron's Wait (2009).

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In the first novel, Smith, a Chicago real estate developer, wakes up in a hospital emergency room after a head injury and finds the man next to him has died. The dead man has no identification on him and is destined to be listed as a John Doe and buried in a potter's field. The ghost of this John Doe, who cannot remember who he is, appears to Smith periodically in dreams and visions and asks for help in determining his identity and finding his killer. In the second novel, the ghost assists Smith in solving another mystery.

Fans of the paranormal may find this new series satisfying; others will find it less absorbing than Grey's Hardesty series.

Independent Mystery Novels

Not all gay mysteries are parts of series, of course, and there have been several good independent novels published in the last thirty years. Notable among them are three non-Brandstetter mysteries by Joseph Hansen: Known Homosexual (published under the pseudonym James Colton in 1968, reissued as Stranger to Himself in 1977, and reprinted under Hansen's name in 1984 as Pretty Boy Dead), Backtrack (1982), and Steps Going Down (1985).

Three other mysteries well worth reading are Richard Hall's Butterscotch Prince (1975, revised 1983), Stephen Lewis's Cowboy Blues (1985), and Jack Ricardo's The Night G.A.A. Died (1992). Hall's novel, set in New York, has its protagonist coming to terms with his own gayness as he pursues the killer of his lover; it may be considered the first gay liberationist mystery novel.

Ricardo's novel also deals with the early struggle of the liberation movement heralded by Stonewall: Archie Cain, a private detective who was forced out of the New York Police Department when he openly declared his gayness, investigates the murder of an officer of the Gay Activists Alliance in 1971.

Lewis's novel is set in Los Angeles and features an appealing gay private detective, Jake Lieberman, who investigates the disappearance of a gay rodeo performer and would-be country singer. It was obviously intended as the first of a series, which unfortunately has failed to materialize.

Also worth mentioning are the quasi-autobiographical novels of Samuel Steward featuring himself, Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas as detectives: Murder Is Murder Is Murder (1985) and The Caravaggio Shawl (1989).

Although the detective of Steven Saylor's meticulously researched and strongly written series set in ancient Rome is not gay, the books include a number of sympathetic gay characters.

Also of interest are Robert Bentley's Here There Be Dragons (1972), an excellent espionage thriller; Terry Miller's Standing By (1984), a mystery set in the New York theater world; and Russell A. Brown's Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Friend of Oscar Wilde (1988), a clever pastiche set in Victorian London.