John Copenhaver

With their suggestive titles and gorgeous, pink-suffused covers, P. J. Vernon’s Bath Haus and Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s Yes, Daddy seem like frothy beach reads—and, to a certain degree, they are. But woven into twisting plots, shocking scenarios, and lush settings lies a deeper, more disturbing concern: how trauma experienced by young gay men can propel them into unhealthy, even dangerous, adult romantic relationships. In Bath Haus, recovering addict Oliver Park from rural Indiana has everything that should make him happy: his partner, Nathan, a handsome, attentive, and wealthy trauma surgeon; a sprawling townhouse in Washington, DC; and, most importantly, his sobriety. Why, then, in the opening pages, is […]

Jeanne Winer’s second novel, Her Kind of Case, is an authoritative, grounded, and deeply human legal thriller. Crime fiction in part stems from the 19th century social novel, so it’s always a treat to read a contemporary novel that sheds light on a contemporary social issue: in this case, the complicated origins of homophobic violence and how our legal system handles teenagers involvement in such violence. Winer’s Lee Isaacs is a 59-year-old criminal defense lawyer in Boulder, Colorado. She’s seasoned, savvy, and winding down a stellar career. She’s also a loner, still grieving the death of her husband. A difficult […]

Alexandre Vidal Porto’s Sergio Y (translated from the Portuguese by Alex Ladd) isn’t a crime story in the strict sense of the genre, even though it does contain a crime. Winner of the Paraná Literary Prize, it’s a mystery in as much as detection and revelation of character drive is its narrative. Beautifully told and translated, it explores the limitations of truly knowing another person, but not without some problematic limitations of its own. Armando, an aging and well respected therapist, in São Paulo, takes on a patient, Sergio Y., the sixteen-year-old child of a wealthy Brazilian family who, despite […]