#queer mystery books

[onlymurdersintheafterparty]

Mystery/Thriller Books I Read This Year with LGBTQ+ Main & Side Characters 🏳️‍🌈

This year I read so many interesting mystery and thriller books and wanted to make this list because I didn't even know that there were that many mystery/thriller books that featured LGBTQ+ characters until this year. These books were all a joy to read and I hope that you'll enjoy them as well. I don't want to mislead anyone so I'll put the pairings in parentheses and let you decide which ones speak to you or not.

Ace of Spades - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (Main Characters)

Students Chiamaka "Chi" and Devon are tormented by an anonymous gossip account that is hellbent on ruining their senior year. If you like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars you'll love it.

All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology - Edited by Circe Moskowitz (Various Characters) and features the following authors:

Kalynn Bayron, Ashia Monet, Liselle Sambury, Sami Ellis, Joel Rochester, Joelle Wellington, Brent C. Lambert, Donyae Coles, Ryan Douglass, Circe Moskowitz

I'm not a big fan of horror novels but I found all of these short stories to be really interesting. They range from confusing to mildly unsettling to very creepy so there is something for everyone. Just a heads up there's a bit of gore but that's something to be expected in a horror novel.

And Don’t Look Back - Rebecca Barrow (Main Characters)

Harlow Ford is a teenager who has bounced from place to place her whole life due to her mother Cora attempting to outrun something or someone. While attempting to flee their current location, Harlow and her mother get into a car accident and her mother dies from her injuries. Before she dies, Cora instructs Harlow to take a key and find a safety deposit box and to "Keep running, and don't stop". In this box Harlow discovers money and new identities as well as a deed to a house and pictures of aunts she never knew existed. Harlow then has to decide if she wants to run forever or solve the mystery to her past. Nearly everyone in this book is sapphic except for a few characters.

Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson (Main & Side Characters)

Estranged siblings Byron and Benny Bennett, affectionately called B&B by their mother Eleanor, have to put aside their differences after her sudden death. The family lawyer reveals that Eleanor left behind various tapes detailing her life and that the last Black cake she made is in the freezer but cannot be cut until the time is right. Told in two timelines, we learn about Eleanor's life and how she came to be her mother and it's a tale of loss, heartbreak, and perseverance. If you haven't already seen it, Hulu has adapted it into a tv series and all episodes are available to watch.

Cutting Teeth - Chandler Baker (Side Characters)

The book's selling point is vampire preschoolers, but it's mainly about three mothers Rhea, Mary Beth, and Darby and their struggles with motherhood. When their children's teacher Ms. Ollie is found dead, cracks form in their friendships and personal lives as they struggle to manage their children's thirst for blood. There are two lesbian moms of one of the preschoolers that are mentioned here and there but they don't play a big part in the story.

The Golden Spoon - Jessa Maxwell (Side Character)

Six amateur bakers are invited to compete on The Golden Spoon, a baking competition hosted by a famous baker Betsy Martin. They're all whisked away to Grafton manor, Betsy's family home. The competition starts off with undetectable acts of sabotage and ends in a shocking murder. One of the reviews compared it to Only Murders in the Building because of some amateur sleuthing done by middle aged tech guru bachelor Pradyumna and retired nurse Lottie, but I don't think they're similar at all just because of the age gap. One of the contestants Peter is gay and has a husband and daughter but he is not a major player in this book. Hulu got the rights to adapt this book into a series so I can't wait to see it in the next year or two.

Their Vicious Games - Joelle Wellington (Side Characters)

After getting into a fight with a classmate, Edgewater Academy student Adina Walker loses her spot at her dream college. In hopes of reclaiming her future, she charms her way into getting accepted into a competition called The Finish. Held at the estate of the Remington family, the founders of the Edgewater Academy itself, The Finish is an intense competition that consists of three challenges: a Ride, a Raid, and a Royale. Competing along 11 other girls, many of which are bloodthirsty for victory, Adina tries to keep her humanity intact to not only win but stay alive. If you like The Hunger Games I think you'll enjoy this book. While their sexual identities aren't clearly defined, two of the female characters are in a queerplatonic relationship that at times seems more romantic than platonic. The Gotham Group has acquired the rights to a live adaptation but I'm unsure of whether or not this book will become a tv series or a movie.

Books that are part of a series are mentioned below. Struck titles are the books that were read in previous years.

Andy Mills Series - Lev A.C. Rosen (Main Characters)

Evander "Andy" Mills is a gay cop who was fired after being caught in a raid at a gay club and is now a private investigator for the LGBTQ+ community in 1950s San Francisco. I can't say too much about the series without spoiling the contents of either book so be sure to check out the goodreads pages for the summaries of the books.

TW: because of the time period there are a lot of homophobic slurs, graphic or off-page police brutality, and some violence in general

Lavender House

The Bell in the Fog

Secret Staircase Mystery Series - Gigi Pandian (Side Characters)

Tempest Raj, a former magician, joins her father's Secret Staircase Construction company that specializes in creating secret rooms for clients. In each book she encounters seemingly impossible locked in mysteries that occur in the homes of their clients while also trying to figure out the mystery behind a family curse that claimed the life of her aunt and possibly her mother who disappeared several years ago. Dahlia, a true crime writer is the older sister of Tempest's best friend Ivy is married to Vanessa, a criminal defense attorney. They along with their young daughter Natalie often end up providing advice or clues needed to help solve the mysteries.

Under Lock & Skeleton Key

The Raven Thief

Thursday Murder Club Series - Richard Osman (One of the main characters but not revealed/confirmed until Book 4)

In the Coopers Chase Retirement Village, four retirees get together every Thursday to solve a murder: Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Ron, and Joyce the newcomer. With the help of their friends Chris and Donna on the police force as well as handyman with a shady past Bogdan, there's no case this crew can't solve. The books are full of charm, wittiness, and excitement and I can't wait for book number five. Not much is known yet, but there is going to be a movie! Filming is supposed to start next year but I don't think they have released the casting information yet but I hope that they choose their cast well.

The Thursday Murder Club

The Man Who Died Twice

The Bullet that Missed

The Last Devil to Die

#mystery books #mystery/thriller books #queer mystery books #lgbtq mystery books #lgbtq thriller books #books #lgbtq #book tumblr

[mysteryloversbookshelf]

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

Before reading this book I had no idea that queer detective novels existed and I’m so glad this was my entry into the genre. The main character is named Evander “Andy” Mills and he was recently fired from the San Francisco police department after being caught in a sexual encounter with another man in a the bathroom of a nightclub. Andy then meets a woman named Pearl Lamontaine who is the widow of the matriarch of the Lamontaine soap company, Irene. Pearl hires Andy to find out if Irene was murdered and if so, by who. Andy then goes to stay at Pearl’s house which he discovers is a safe haven for the lgbt community. Living there is Pearl and Irene’s son Henry, his husband Cliff, Margo Henry’s wife for appearances, and her wife Elsie. Margo’s mother Alice also lives with them despite being straight since she had nowhere else to go. Even the staff of the house are part of the community. Pat, the butler, is gay and the cook Dot is dating Judy the gardener. What I liked about this book is that you really come to love the characters of Lavender House by the end of it and are left hoping to read more about them in future books. This book takes place in 1952 when gay marriage was illegal and homophobia was at an all time high, so the entire novel is Andy coming to terms with who he was as a closeted policeman vs who he will become. It’s not copaganda at all and the farthest thing from it since it makes a habit to consistently showcase the corruption in the system and the harm that the police have done to the lgbt community. There is a sequel coming soon called The Bell in the Fog that will be released on October 10th and I can’t wait to read it ☺️

Trigger Warnings to Be Aware Of

On page 84, there is a use of the f slur as well as on page 163. There is also a graphic scene in chapter 10 where Andy is the victim of a homophobic attack so if that’s something you would like to avoid, skip pages 162-164 and you won’t miss anything important.

#mystery books #lavender house #lev ac rosen #queer detective fiction #queer mystery #queer mystery books #lgbt books

[bodhrancomedy]

Just a list of children’s books that did impact my life way more than Harry Potter.

#deaf #tiktok #queer #video #actor #books #middle grade fiction #fantasy #roman mysteries #rangers apprentice #riftwar saga #worst witch #anti jkr

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Do you know this queer character?

Mac is a Lesbian and uses she/her pronouns!

#elizabeth macmillan #mac miss fisher's murder mysteries #miss fisher's murder mysteries #kerry greenwood #tumblr polls #fandom polls #poll #lesbian #she/her #book #live action #lgbtqia #do you know this queer character #finished

[the7livesofmillygray]

the 7 lives of milly gray (ya mystery novel, free on kindle unlimited, lgbtqia, found family

#booklr #books #lgbtqia #lgbtbooks #the7livesofmillygray #indiebooks #found family #found family books #reading #minnesota #lgbtq #kindle #free books #mystery book #midwest #small town mystery #queer mystery #bi books #bi representation

[menoasmess]

#a long time dead #cemetery boys #a marvellous light #prince of the sorrows #the jasmine throne #sapphic vampire #sapphic rage #lgbt fiction #lgbtqia books #queer books rec #Menoa rec #book tag #gay fae #queer murder mystery

[samantha-and-nellie]

i’ve been re-reading the american girl history mysteries on and off here and well. let’s just say that miss brown and miss guerrier from “under copp’s hill” sure seem gay

#i’m only a few chapters in so let’s see how this develops #but they share an apartment together #and are running a settlement house together #a notoriously queer activity #also this book is set in boston so like #in my mind the author is making a joke about boston marriages #american girl history mysteries #books #from my slate #ag #agblr #american girl #american girl doll

[hussyknee]

Gave up on Cat Sebastian after seven books (I'll go back and try her 20th century period novels later since I'm told they might be better) and started reading KJ Charles's new Death in the Spires instead. Instantly grabbed by the heart, mind and balls (or whatever the female anatomy equivalent would be). No plodding, skimming or patience necessary. Already blown through 75 pages. If I had this much chemistry on every date with another human being I might actually marry them, and my jaded and divorced ass does not say that lightly.

It's a bit of a departure this time because it's a murder mystery set in the Edwardian era (which includes the 1890s for me personally bc if there's cars around Victoria is as good as dead) rather than yet another 19th century romance. The protagonist is queer and the vibe is def Be Gay Do Crimes but Charles has taken care to plaster everywhere that this is NOT a guaranteed HEA. Idk whether that means we're going to be left with an uneasy, reeling Agatha Christie ending or it just went without saying because why would a murder mystery have a HEA?

I'm really interested to see whether Charles can pull it off though. She's the kind of confident and intelligent plotter that makes you think could write clever whodunits, so this feels like putting her money where her mouth gave the impression it might be. The Christie vibes are hella strong in this one so far and the pacing is, as ever, a study in excellence.

Edit: what do you mean St. Anselm's is a fictional Oxford college?? There's entire fantasy franchises with less involved world building than what KJC gave this place??

#kj charles #death in the spires #historical fiction #queer historical fiction #historical mystery #historical murder mystery #queer media #book recommendations #book reccs #knee of huss

[b0rtney]

you want homosexuals in every conceivable scenario?

Boy oh boy do i have the substack for u: mine!

NO PLEASE LEMME TELL U THE STORIES BEFORE U LEAVE--

Current is Cinnamon Muffins. TLDR: Six queer boys in a homophobic tiny town in Iowa are trying to survive winter break dodging awful parents, social stigma, and mental health crises.

Next up is How to Get Away with Marriage. TLDR: Guy with awful, religious parents marries guy who is living paycheck to paycheck so they can both get all their younger sisters out of their shitty situations (but they fall in love ofc).

Longer desc of these plus the stories coming in the next months are below the cut! (Genres include fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, mystery/thriller, coming-of-age)

Cinnamon Muffins centers on Taylor Macready, a homeless senior in high school holed up in a sleeping bag under a bridge after his parents kicked him out. He's fully ready to just accept death when it starts snowing on him while he's stargazing, but social outcast Wes Post is taking his nightly walk in a new direction and stumbles (literally) on his longtime crush, Taylor. Dragging Taylor home, Wes's parents prove themselves the only reasonable parents in this book by setting Taylor up on their pullout couch and nursing him back to health. Then Wes, whose closest school relationships include the kids who bully him for his anxiety-related speech impediment, has to get in touch with Taylor's friends to let them know the situation. Meanwhile, the mean girls of Swisher High School are starting a campaign to get homosexuality banned at school. Administratively, it gets nowhere, but it inspires several small-minded shitwads to take matters into their own hands. While Taylor is used to getting into fights, Wes isn't, but he'll have to sink or swim, because the teachers are not paid enough to care what happens in the hallways during lunchtime.

How to Get Away with Marriage opens with Luke Providence, son of a devoutly Baptist family in Nebraska, proposing to Patrick Demden, son of a recently-deceased alcoholic mechanic. The wealthy Providence parents have a longstanding agreement that once their children get married, they will receive a trust of $100,000 to use on the down-payment of a house and to start a life with their spouse. Patrick's younger sister tutors Luke's younger sister, but Patrick's sister is 16. This age gap doesn't matter much to the Providence parents, but it matters a lot to Luke, so he strikes a deal with Patrick: tell the parents he'll marry the sister, legally marry the brother, everyone gets to move to Colorado and escape abusive religious parents and crushing poverty. He needn't have done something so elaborate, Patrick would have married him for any reason at all. But the secret doesn't stay secret forever, and the Providence parents eventually come knocking, trying to recollect their children and their money.

Future stories I'll keep shorter, but feel free to ask about them either in the replies or my askbox and I'll elaborate!

Assassin x Demon King will be getting books 2 and 3! ADK is about an assassin and the king he was supposed to kill, both of whom have quit their jobs and started trying to save as many people as the assassin killed before he dies of a slow-acting poison in twelve months. Books 2 and 3 will have things getting awfully tragic and somewhat more horny than before! (No smut will make it into the print versions of these, that will remain on my substack alone)

How to Find Your Friends After the End of the World is a fantasy inspired by the isekai anime genre. Five friends in their 20s are on earth as it is wracked by a violent battle between the Heroine of the Gods and her Nemesis, and then, suddenly, they aren't. Earth has been destroyed and they are now on a new planet, in new (non-human) bodies, strewn across continents! On their new wrists, they have tattoos with each others' names, plus one (or two) new ones: their soulmates. Court politics and wastelands of monsters await them as they try desperately to reach each other, and their soulmates try desperately to reach them.

HtFYF will also have a prequel, focusing on the events that led to earth's destruction, and the battle between the Heroine of the Gods, a young woman, and her Nemesis, who seems to know more about the gods than she says. Why do the gods keep choosing such young heroes? What has the Nemesis done to put the world in such peril? Will the Heroine get to graduate on time despite the sleep she's been missing!?

The following do not yet have titles, but are fully fleshed out works ready to be thrown onto Substack:

A trilogy of eleven teens assisting in the fight against an agency that traffics, tortures, and then sells children with preternatural powers and abilities, and an exploration of the trauma those kids emerge with.

A murder mystery where a woman's sister dies, the police rule it suicide, and the woman enlists the help of a rumored contract killer to help her solve the murder-- but why does this rumored murderer-for-hire seem to know so much about her sister's death? And who was truly responsible?

A campy novel about a woman who graduates college, goes back to her hometown, and finds her highschool crush is still there, still single, and has since come out as gay. Of course, the only solution is to co-adopt an at-risk child from a neighbor.

This post will remain pinned on my profile, but for the next few days I'm having a sale on my substack tiers-- 20% off! That makes the cost to you just $8 per month to get a chapter every other day. 15 chapters for $8; that's a steal!

#support the author #indie author #substack #book recommendations #queer fantasy #queer scifi #queer mystery #queer romance #queer ya #wlw #mlm #queer rep #mlnb #wlnb

[blam-marie]

One Selkie. Two strangers. Three murders.

The small town of St. Adalbert Sur Mer is hiding a dark secret.

Three times during the summer, the lifeless body of a Selkie was dumped into the river. Naked, and with a missing pelt.

Louison is sent by her clan to investigate these murders and catch the killer, but her mission derails when she meets two charming strangers whom everyone in town seems to be falling in love with - including herself. Torn between her rising attraction towards Gabrielle and Adrien and keeping the secret of her origins, Louison must dodge tourists, deadly poachers and wildlife protection agents in a wild quest to find her sibling’s murderer - before he kills again.

Skin Deep is a queer polyamorous story where everyone is hiding something and nothing is as simple as it seems. 

Now available for pre-orders in both ENGLISH and FRENCH

#book promo #polyamoury romance #book romance #fantasy novel #blaze #selkie romance #romantic suspense #romance novels #writing is hard #my books #selkie romance novel #book rec #small town romance #murder mystery #shifter romance #queer romance #bisexual romance

[floorpancakes]

#semi out of context twitter repost but #listen i was mid convo and i had a revelation #new buzzfeed quiz just dropped how deep are YOU into the queer vintage anime pit of doom??? #yes this is how i got into it (stage 0 and 1) #kawoshin is a retro anime mystery busting gateway drug #im on like level 16000 but that's like. literally beginner level i am a single celled organism who knows nothing #layer 2450 is looking up old shojo magazine covers and shuddering saying 'oh...its blonde blue eyed white people all the way down' #and layer 2457 is trying to figure out what to make of that information and exercising nuanced internal criticism of it #layer 0 can also be 'eva akira and utena are THE retro anime it doesnt rly go back further i think maybe unless its a popular long shonen' #not that all those onions would be expressed at omce #layer 7329 is remembering your kuroshitsuji phase and awkwardly side eyeing the alois kid once you watch the kazeki ova #actually some of these are sooo poorly scaled listen i wasnt planning on making a huge metaphor cut me a little slack #anyways its definitely like slipping down a massive hole but like a cool one like in alice in wonderland #and it smells of old books in both a pleasant way and a spooky way #i need to get mentally better to clear floor 45000 and become jp fluent to clear floor 65000 im a noob

[onlymurdersintheafterparty]

I’m almost done with Ace of Spades and this book is stressing me out 😭 The reveal on who Aces is was so terrifying and the psychological warfare Chiamaka and Devon have gone through in this book is intense. This book is definitely Get Out meets Gossip Girl but it’s also giving Pretty Little Liars as well.

#ace of spades #faridah àbíké íyímídé #mystery books #queer mystery books #black mystery authors

[holmesoldfellow]

"Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Friend of Oscar Wilde" by Russel A. Brown, a Stonewall Inn Mystery (1988, Published by St. Martin's Press)

#ignoring any and all issues with writing quality because its Gay #happy pride #stonewall inn mystery #russell a brown #pastiche #sherlock holmes pastiche #sherlock holmes #holmes #oscar wilde #queer lit #sherlock holmes and the mysterious friend of oscar wilde #book cover #vintage book

[bodhrancomedy]

By the way, if it was Harry Potter or Percy Jackson please don’t answer because I’m trying to see what else people loved. Also, children’s, not YA.

#deaf #queer #polls #books #children’s books #Roman mysteries #discworld #a series of unfortunate events

[steelycunt]

‘gay retelling of a classic!’ ‘feminist sapphic twist on this greek myth!’ why don’t you write a better book than that. i think we deserve better books than that

#just had ‘jane austen’s mansfield park reimagined as a sapphic murder mystery’ advertised 2 me on IG. and i just think you should write a #better book than that. if you want to write a ‘sapphic murder mystery’ then write it. the fact that you have to lean on existing classics #and advertise yours as a ‘retelling’ or a ‘twist’ or a ‘reimagining’ suggests to me that you are not a very good writer. sorry this is very #hatery but i believe it…just write a new book. a better book. what is the point of writing a gay version of wuthering heights other than it #solves your problem of not being able to come up with a plot because you are not a very good writer. i dont know. i suppose there is space #for anything and should be space for all sorts in the publishing industry but also i hear sapphic murder mystery mansfield park and i think #that’s probably not a very good book. idk. there is excellent queer and feminist original fiction out there without the need to take #existing literature at random and use that as a crutch for some reason… #(ridi's) bigmouth strikes again

[cswritesbooks]

GREENLIGHT. GATEKEEP. GHOSTHUNT.

The sequel to fantasy mystery The Undetectables (about three witches and a ghost in a cat costume who start a PI agency to stop a serial killer stalking their small magical town) lands this September and it’s 25% off in the Barnes and Noble preorder sale with code PREORDER25 from today until April 19th!

Here’s the official blurb:

Five months after the events of The Undetectables, business is booming – but finding cases that call for magical forensic investigators is not. So when Diana’s ex, Taylor, asks them to solve a murder – her own – Diana, Mallory and Cornelia can’t say no.

Called to investigate the set of Undead Complex, Diana re-enters the world of TV-show prop making – even in death, the show must go on. Even the appearance of a genuine-article Francine Leon dollhouse can't make up for the fact she's being pulled down a path of crime-solving she maybe doesn't want to walk forever.

Meanwhile, Theodore's coming apart at the seams – literally – in the aftermath of their last case, and Mallory is running out of ways to help him. Especially as he seems to be keeping secrets from her.

As the clues – and the bodies – keep piling up, each one making less and less sense, The Undetectables find themselves in a new race against the clock to find out what, exactly, the killer is up to – before they strike again...

Get your copy HERE

#The Undetectables #the undead complex #titan books #fantasy mystery #sapphic books #be gay solve crimes #queer writers #fantasy crime #fantasy #urban fantasy #murder mystery #Courtney Smyth #bookblr #bookworm #barnes and noble