Showing results by author "Marshall Thornton" in All Categories

A former police officer turned private investigator, Nick Nowak is haunted by his abrupt departure from the department, as well as, the traumatic end of his relationship with librarian Daniel Laverty. In these three stories set in Chicago during the early eighties, Nick locates a missing young man for a mysterious client, solves a case of arson at a popular nightspot, and goes undercover to prove a dramatic suicide was actually murder.

In the fifth book of the award-winning Boystown mystery series, it's fall 1982 and Chicago is gripped by panic after five people die from poisoned Tylenol capsules. Amid the chaos, the Bughouse Slasher takes his eighth victim, this time striking close to private investigator Nick Nowak. With the Chicago Police Department stretched to its limit, Nick takes matters into his own hands. But what will he do with the Bughouse Slasher once he finds him?

When gay activist Gage Hammond is accused of burning down a patriotic Christmas tree that stands in front of a conservative radio station, the judge sentences him to learn the true meaning of Christmas: Hammond must join buttoned-up prosecutor Cal Cutler and his family for the holiday. There’s just one problem—okay, maybe a lot of problems. But at the top of the list: Cal’s in the closet and it’s not even his family!

In the sixth Pinx Video Mystery, it's January 1994 and Noah is thrilled that it's been months and months since he's been involved in a murder... but then, the boys learn that Javier O'Shea (tall, dark and LAPD) has been arrested for theft of evidence. As the bodies pile up, they learn that Javier may, or may not, have run afoul of rogue cops at the notoriously corrupt Rampart Station. But what does all this have to do with a major earthquake, a poorly maintained Nissan Sentra, and Leon's mysterious past?

After more than two decades together, Andrew Lane and Miles Kettering-Lane are going through a nasty divorce. Not only are they unraveling their relationship but also their business—Miles once had a popular home show on cable with Andrew serving as his producer/manager—the failure of which they blame on each other. Now, they'd be happy to never, ever see each other again. But the daughter they both adore, Kelly, announces she's getting married, and that means one very important thing: a wedding.

Palm Springs, 1973. Don Harris is a piano player on the run after killing a Chicago mobster's son in a bar fight. On the lam, he meets a pretty blonde girl in town for a convention. He lets down his guard and spends the night with her only to discover she's the younger sister of his best friend all grown-up. Foolishly, she tips her brother off to Don's location, and he's on the run again, hoping to find a safe place to land.

Where would you go if you could travel to any part of your past? That’s the question Terrance faces on his 45th birthday—and right away, he knows. He wants to go back to 1992 and not meet Mr. Wrong. But what begins as a journey to change the past becomes a trip to find the future. From the writer of Femme comes a story of best friends, time travel and falling in love.

In the second Wyandot County Mystery, things are still not going well for Henry Milch. While stuck in Northern Lower Michigan helping his nana Cole recover from a stroke, he learns that her favorite pastor has been killed. When Nana Cole asks him to investigate, he refuses—until she offers him money. Money that will help him get back to real life in West Hollywood. That sets Henry off on a journey that includes: off-key choir rehearsals, pole barns, bad haircuts, a hunky doctor, and too many get-well-soon casseroles.

It's Thanksgiving 1992, and Noah Valentine is late picking his mother up from the airport. When he arrives, he discovers that she's made a friend on the flight who's also waiting for her son. When the woman's son doesn't show up, they eventually take her home for breakfast with neighbor's Marc and Louis.

Valentine’s Day, 1993. After years of being single, Noah is finally ready to date again. Unfortunately, things don’t end too well. After spending their first night together, he wakes up covered in blood - next to his very dead date. Already convinced Noah has an abnormal attraction to murder, Detective Wellesley believes it has tipped over to actually killing someone. That leaves Noah and his friends having to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Marc and Louis have gone on The Drinking Man’s Diet...let the hangovers ensue.

Martin Dixon's carefully-constructed, peaceful life is turned upside down when his super Christian eighteen-year-old nephew Carter shows up unexpectedly on his doorstep and announces he's gay. Martin's first impulse is to send him back to his parents. But when he discovers that Carter has been in a mental hospital to cure his gay-ness he realizes he's stuck with the boy. Unfortunately, the two get on each other's nerves, each driving the other to distraction. Independently, however, they each arrive at the same conclusion. The other would be much less annoying if he only had... a boyfriend.

Things have not been going well for Henry Milch. After a Saturday night clubbing in his beloved West Hollywood, he took one pill too many and ended up banished to Northern Lower Michigan to live on a farm with his ultraconservative grandmother. It was that or rehab. While working a part-time job for the local land conservancy, he stumbles across a dead body in the snow—as if things couldn’t get worse. But then, things take a turn for the better: There’s a reward for information leading to the man’s killer. All Henry has to do is find the murderer and claim the reward.

In the first full-length novel of the Boystown series, it's late summer 1982 and private detective Nick Nowak is asked to find a retired gentleman's long lost lover. Instead, he finds himself embroiled in a decades old murder connected to the man who wants to be Chicago's next mayor. Meanwhile, an ambitious young reporter develops a friendship with Nick's lover Bert, making Nick wonder exactly where their relationship may be heading.

It’s about a dress. A valuable blue sequined dress worn by a famed actress in a film from the 1940s. For some reason, everyone thinks video store owner Noah Valentine has it. Which might not be a big deal, except that it’s connected to the murder of a prominent Hollywood costumer. In the second of the Pinx Video Mysteries, Noah attempts to solve the mystery of the dress.

Noah Valentine, the owner of Pinx Video in Silver Lake, notices the fires have taken their toll on fellow shopkeeper Guy Peterson's camera shop. After the riots end, he decides to stop by Guy’s to pick up his overdue videos, only to find Guy’s family dividing up his belongings. He died in the camera store fire, or did he?

Nineteen-year-old Jake Margate has had terminal leukemia for five years and is ready to let go, but his mother has other ideas. She's found a rogue doctor pursuing radical treatments and takes her son to a remote institute where he does seem to get better...at first. But he can't find his pulse. When the treatment begins to fail in strange ways, just as Jake begins to fall for a boy who is another of patient at the clinic, Jake realizes he's been turned into something truly horrible.

It's Easter 1993, and the gang is going to Las Vegas for Angie's surprise wedding. Noah is attempting to recover from a bad bout of the flu - and his disastrous Valentine's Day, and is not all that excited to meet his new relatives: Cotton Preston and his three grown daughters. They're staying at Lucky Days casino, a hotel with notorious mob connections...and family connections. It's only then that Noah and his friends realize his future step-father might just be a mob lawyer.

Long Beach, California, 1996. Despite having little obvious experience, bartender Dom Reilly is hired as an investigator for the Freedom Agenda, a not-for-profit justice project. His first case involves a 12-year-old homicide, in which a teenage girl was viciously murdered.

Private Investigator Nick Nowak is back in two novella length mysteries set in Chicago during the early 1980s. In Little Boy Boom, Nick's car explodes when a thief attempts to steal it. Realizing the bomb was meant for him, Nick sets out to discover who wants him dead only to find that the list of possible suspects is longer than he'd like. When he begins to run out of suspects he wonders if the bomb was truly meant for him.

Queeny cocktail waiter Lionel wakes up to find himself in bed with Dog, a straight-acting softball player, and the two embark on a rocky road to romance. A journey that requires coming out of the closet, going into the closet, a pair of red high heels, many pairs of red high heels, a failed intervention, a couple of aborted dates, and homemade pom-poms. Mostly, Lionel and Dog learn what it means to be a man.