by Matt Lubbers-Moore

I work in an academic library, and although I have my master’s in information and library science, I am not a librarian. Rather I answer the phone, and if patrons have a harder question that is outside the knowledge of our student workers (which is rare since they know all), I help find the answer.

What I don’t get to do a lot of is recommending books to patrons. Being in an academic library, we don’t have a lot of patrons looking for comfort reads. Instead we have patrons that need an article from a research journal on the “Potential applications of biomolecular archaeology to the ecohistory of sea turtles and groupers in Levant coastal antiquity,” and they need it now for their paper due in an hour.

Not a lot of time for me then to recommend the newest mystery novel. I am really thankful to Lorie Lewis Ham for inviting me to share up and coming LGBTQ mystery novels by amazingly talented #ownvoices LGBTQ mystery authors.

Please check out these upcoming titles:

Fleur d’Lies by M. J. Williamz, Bold Stroke Books
Out March 16, 2021
DJ Sander is transitioning, as a civilian, as a cop, and from female to male. A fresh-faced rookie, he’s excited to be working in New Orleans’s French Quarter, until he discovers his brothers in blue don’t follow the rules. In fact, they break them. DJ suspects Bobby “Stringbean” Aiello is guilty of a major crime, and it’s up to him to prove it, even when threats and attacks on his life make it mission impossible.

By Way of Sorrow by Robyn Gigl, Kensington Publishing
Out March 30, 2021
Erin McCabe has been referred the biggest case of her career. Four months ago, William E. Townsend, Jr., son of a New Jersey State Senator, was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a nineteen-year-old transgender prostitute, is in custody, and given the evidence against her, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict. Sharise claims she killed the senator’s son in self-defense.

Blackout by Marco Carocari, Level Best Books
Out March 30, 2021
Strait-laced forty-something Franco definitely picked the wrong night to get freaky. A hook-up with a hot guy on his Manhattan rooftop and a joint he’s unaware is laced, leaves him dazed. And—if memory serves him—the sole witness to a murder across the street. Except, the cops can’t find a crime scene or a body, and Franco’s perforated recollections and conflicting testimony leave the detectives unimpressed. When days later the mutilated body of a philanthropic millionaire is discovered, he’s not only shocked to learn he knew him, but with Franco’s fingerprints all over the crime scene, he quickly graduates from unreliable witness to prime suspect.

The Gilded Madonna by Garrick Jones, Moshpit Publishing
Out March/April 2021
This second book in the Clyde Smith mysteries has private investigator Clyde Smith suddenly thrown into disarray by the appearance, after a three-year hiatus, of a body bearing the distinctive hallmarks of a string of murders he hadn’t been able to solve when working in homicide. This complex case involves kidnapping, the re-emergence of the Silent Cop Killer, the historical abuse of young men and boys in orphanages across the State, and a ghost from the past who is out for revenge.

Lies with Man by Michael Nava, Amble Press
Out April 27, 2021
Los Angeles, 1986. A group of right-wing Christians has put an initiative on the November ballot to allow health officials to force people with HIV into quarantine camps?and it looks like it’s going to pass. Rios, now living in LA, agrees to be counsel for a group of young activists who call themselves QUEER (Queers United to End Erasure and Repression). QUEER claims to be committed to peaceful civil disobedience. But when one of its members is implicated in the bombing of an evangelical church that kills its pastor, who publicly supported the quarantine initiative, Rios finds himself with a client suddenly facing the death penalty. The new book three is in the Henry Rios series.

A Friend in the Fire by Gregory Ashe and C. S. Poe, Emporium Press
Out April 29, 2021
Sam and Rufus must dig into Rufus’s rough and turbulent past in order to solve a series of contemporary murders connected to his mother. And if the two can’t expose who the killer is in time, they will most certainly become his next targets. The second book is in the Auden and O’Callaghan series.

Second Son by Adam Carpenter, MLR Press
Out April 2021
In the seventh installment of the Jimmy McSwain series Jimmy returns home uncertain of what the future holds. It doesn’t take long for tomorrow to come calling. Not just one case, but two. His sister Mallory’s law firm wants to hire Jimmy to solve the mystery of twin brothers. One of the twins lies in a coma, while the other has gone missing. Meanwhile, there’s Jimmy’s lingering obsession with the criminal mastermind Mr. Wu-Tin, the man responsible for Mallory’s shooting. Jimmy is determined to bring him down.

Dead as a Doornail by Grant Michaels, ReQueered Tales
Out April 2021
Newly wealthy ex-hairdresser Stan Kraychik buys the last unrenovated brownstone in Boston’s fabulously chic South End. Only to have the renovations held up by a freak April snowstorm—and the murder of the young, attractive contractor. Because the victim bears some resemblance to Stan himself, the police think he might have been the intended target and want him to leave town while they look for the killer. Instead Stan begins to snoop around on his own, discovering a web of secrets and jealousies that someone has killed to protect, and the contractor’s murder is only the beginning. Book six in the Stan Kraychik cozy mysteries.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Be sure to check out our new mystery podcast too with mystery short stories, and first chapters read by local actors. A new episode went up this week.

Click on this link to take you to Mysterious Galaxy’s website where you can purchase many of these books & a portion will go to help support KRL:

Matt Lubbers-Moore has two graduate degrees in library science and history. He is the co-owner of ReQueered Tales and author of Murder and Mayhem: An Annotated Bibliography of Gay and Queer Males in Mystery; 1909-2018

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases.