by Matt Lubbers-Moore
This Pride season has been very quiet as most cities and towns near me in West Michigan were done virtually or postponed to the fall. However, I did manage to set up a booth at the Lowell Pride. Lowell Pride was the first time Lowell had attempted to put on a pride event in this small conservative town, and despite the three protestors, the event was a huge success. It had estimated 300-500 people would come and were surprised when over 2,000 people came. It was wonderful to see all of the youth, the couples, the seniors, and all of the colors of the rainbow flag!! I must admit that my husband and I had a chart of all the different flags so that we could keep track of them all. It was beautiful, and it made me happy to be out and among my “family!”
Warn Me When It’s Time by Cheryl Head, Bywater Books
Out June 29, 2021 (close enough to July)
A hate group operating in Oakland County, Michigan, has claimed responsibility for a six-month-long string of arson fires and robberies at mosques, temples, and black churches around Detroit, eluding police and federal agencies. The most recent fire, at a mosque in Dearborn, kills a respected imam. His children, suspicious of law enforcement’s treatment of Muslims, and afraid of reprisal, hires Charlie Mack and her team of investigators to find their father’s murderers. The Mack team begins to hunt down the clues in this local hate crime, but they aren’t prepared when they realize that those clues are pointing to a widespread conspiracy that runs through elected state officials and up to the highest levels of national leadership. FBI agent, James Saleh, returns to help the Mack Agency infiltrate and take down a homegrown militia hell-bent on starting a race war in America.
A Man by Ripley Hayes
Out July 2, 2021
An early morning run. An abandoned child. A dead family. Did John Edwards slaughter his wife and daughters, then kill himself? Why did the little boy survive the massacre? What are the hippies next door hiding? This is the fourth book in the DI Owen Welsh Mystery series (no cover available).
Murder and Gold by Ann Aptaker, Bywater Books
Out July 6, 2021
It’s New York City, 1954. Two women are found murdered. One is Lorraine Quinn, Cantor Gold’s most recent one-night-stand. The other is political power broker and aspiring New York socialite Eve Garraway, a regular client of Cantor’s stolen art trade. Police nemesis, Lieutenant Norm Huber, wants to pin the murders on Cantor, and he’ll get evidence on her any way he can.
Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby, Flatiron Books
Out July 6, 2021
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
The Very Nice Box by Eve Gleickman and Laura Blackett, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Out July 6, 2021
Ava Simon designs storage boxes for STÄDA, a slick Brooklyn-based furniture company. She’s hard-working, obsessive, and heartbroken from a tragedy that killed her girlfriend and upended her life. It’s been years since she’s let anyone in. But when Ava’s new boss—the young and magnetic Mat Putnam—offers Ava a ride home one afternoon, an unlikely relationship blossoms. Ava remembers how rewarding it can be to open up—and, despite her instincts, she becomes enamored. But Mat isn’t who he claims to be, and the romance takes a sharp turn.
Red Tide at Heron Bay by Gerri Hill, Bella Books
Out July 20, 2021
Lauren Voss has a nice, quiet, orderly life running her grandmother’s Heron Bay Resort on the Texas coast. Three years removed from a break-up that left her ex?and her life?behind in San Diego, she’s adjusted to the slow pace in Rockport, seeking out neither new friends nor lovers. Vandalism at the resort’s clubhouse and a cryptic message written in blood brings Detective Harley Shepherd, with her obnoxious Hawaiian shirts, into her life.
Upended by Amanda Kabak, Brain Mill Press
Out July 20, 2021
Maddie has everything the way she likes it. Her start-up, Mindful Management, is the work of her heart, and her business partner, Joe, the ideal complement to her talents. Of course, she’d like to see her younger brother move past his barista stage and get serious, but brotherly obligation means she can work on him during their weekly diner dates. She doesn’t like to think about her ex, the perfect Jane, but even if their breakup was painful, it was grown-up. The boxes are getting checked. Things are humming.
But then everything is turned upside down when Maddie survives a vicious attack by an unknown predator. The moment she opens her eyes in the hospital, it’s as if her life starts up all over again on a brand-new day one—except this new timeline reveals that nothing in her old life was what it seemed. Everything Maddie thought she needed isn’t turning out how she planned, and honestly, wasn’t how she really liked it after all.
After You Died by Dea Poirer, Agora Books
Out July 27, 2021
Seventeen-year-old bisexual teen boy Asher remembers nothing from the night in 1968 when the police found him covered in his girlfriend’s blood. He knows he’d never hurt anyone, least of all her. But the only person who believes him is his twin sister. He’s sentenced to five years at the Dozier Reform School. And like Asher’s memory, Dozier hides violent secrets of its own. One morning, after following her ghost into the forest the night before, he wakes up outside covered in blood with no memory, and fears he’s killed someone else. On top of that, he learns that his sister—who had feared she was being stalked by a boy from their school—has disappeared.
Note: Brad Shreve is the host of the Queer Writers of Crime Podcast and also worth a listen!!
Learn more on the Queer Writers of Crime podcast website.
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 and this one features an LGBTQ+ character written by an LGBTQ+ author.
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Matt: Didn’t know we shared Michigan roots. 3,000 folks coming out to celebrate PRIDE in Lowell, Michigan warms my heart.