Agatha Christie, move over! Hard-core sex and scandal meet in this brilliantly funny whodunit. A seaside village, an English country house, a family of wealthy eccentrics and their equally peculiar servants, a determined detective -- all the ingredients are here for a cozy Agatha Christie-style whodunit. But wait -- Edward "Mitch" Mitchell is no Hercule Poirot, and The Back Passage is no Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Mitch is a handsome, insatiable 22-year-old hunk who never lets a clue stand in the way of a steamy encounter, whether it's with the local constabulary, the house secretary, or his school chum and fellow athlete Boy Morgan, who becomes his Watson when they're not busy boffing each other. When Reg Walworth is found dead in a cabinet, Sir James Eagle has his servant Weeks immediately arrested as the killer. But Mitch's observant eye pegs more plausible possibilities: polysexual chauffeur Hibbert, queenly pervert Leonard Eagle, missing scion Rex, sadistic copper Kennington, even Sir James Eagle himself. Blackmail, police corruption, a dizzying network of spyholes and secret passages, watersports, and a nonstop queer orgy backstairs and everyplace else mark this hilariously hard-core mystery by a major new talent.

Back Passage

Literature & Fiction

Lear, James

United States

Cleis Press

Move over, Scarlett O'Hara! It's New England, 1861, and the troubles in the southern states seem a long way off for Jack Edgerton, the spoiled son of a prominent Vermont family. However, when he meets and falls in love with Aaron Johnson, the sexy son of a slave on the run from Virginia, Edgerton's world is turned upside down. Separated by circumstances, the lovers pursue each other through the escalating madness of the Civil War and both find themselves forced to choose sides. After a series of outrageous adventures - including steamy woodland trysts and an impromptu jailhouse orgy that briefly reconciles the warring parties - they are reunited in the Shenandoah Valley in the autumn of 1864 -- where the conflict is about to come to a bloody, burning climax.

Hot Valley: A Novel

Contemporary

This extremely graphic novel brims with male sex from the sordid to the sublime, in every position, place, and variety. Watch and enjoy as Paul Lemoyne leaves his humble home to begin a new life as a music hall stagehand, but soon discovers there are richer pickings to be had from the stage-door johnnies who haunt the Palace of Varieties Music Hall. And thus ensues our rake's progress from low-life prostitution to the salons and studios of Mayfair, from the bath-houses of Bermondsey to the rarefied circles of modern art. All the while behind each of Paul's outrageous sexual adventures lurks the mysterious figure of Albert Abbott, his lover, corrupter, and Svengali.

Palace of Varieties

Erotica

The Flying Scotsman, one of the world’s legendary train journeys, has many attractions for Edward Mitch” Mitchell, from the obliging porter to the mean guard to a troop of rough-and-ready soldiers in easily lifted kilts in the third-class carriage. But Mitch may not have time for them all before they arrive in London. When the train gets stuck in a tunnel, a dead body is found in the first-class toilet! Ever-ready Mitch decides to intervene and solve the crime. With his new Belgian sidekick Benoit, he pursues the killer through a crazy kaleidoscope of movie stars, drug dealers, royal scandals, and queens of every description. Can he finger the villain before the villain fingers him? What is the connection between Buckingham Palace and a bunch of backstreet pornographers? And what is the mystery of the secret tunnel? Mitch intends to go all the way to figure it all out.

The Secret Tunnel

Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped has long been considered a masterpiece of high adventure. In The Low Road, James Lear reinvents this classic as a satirical, queer, coming-of-age story. In 1750 Scotland, young Charles Gordon reaches adulthood ignorant of his family's heroic past in the Jacobite Rebellion. He sets out to discover the truth about his father, but instead is kidnapped by mercenaries and sold into slavery as the plaything of a group of corrupt military officials. But Charlie’s talents, in and out of bed, win him powerful friends as well as dangerous foes. The false priest, Lebecque, violent Captain Robert, depraved General Wilmott all contribute to Charlie’s "education." Eventually leading a makeshift army of sex-crazed layabouts, Charlie faces the might of the English forces. Will he triumph, or is it better to retreat to the safety of his sybaritic lifestyle? James Lear expertly interweaves spies and counterspies, scheming servants and sadistic captains, tavern trysts and prison orgies, into this delightfully erotic work that can take its place alongside his acclaimed novels The Back Passage and Hot Valley.

Low Road

British & Irish

Best friends and sometimes lovers Edward "Mitch" Mitchell and Harry "Boy" Morgan have been in terrible jams before -- their adventures of murder, mystery, and unstoppable sex have made The Back Passage and The Secret Tunnel international bestellers. In A Sticky End, Mitch must face the possibility that Boy is involved in the chain of events that led to the suicide of his own colleague and secret paramour, Frank Bartlett. To absolve Boy, Mitch races around London finding clues while bedding the many men eager to lend a hand -- or more. The policemen, working class gigolos, steam room bathers, embezzlers, and blackmailers that Mitch comes across create a tasty mystery and satisfying erotic romp.

Sticky End: A Mitch Mitchell Mystery

Killing is easy. Love is... The Hardest Thing
Once a major in the U.S. Army Dan Stagg fell afoul of Don't Ask Don't Tell. In his late 30s tall and muscular Dan is prone to violence always upholding what he views as justice. He's offered a great deal of money to protect the young male "secretary" of a powerful real estate broker. The vain shallow—but most of all hot—young man's idea of protection includes sex. Dan quickly realizes something strange is going on: he's being used as a shield for a much more sinister operation and must chose between easy money and sex or the ideals that he embodied in the Army. Why should he do the right thing—particularly when the army betrayed him? The Hardest Thing is a sexy gay mystery as only James Lear can write it: filled with lots of gay sexual encounters romance sweat violence and conspiracy.

Hardest Thing: A Dan Stagg Mystery

Who is trying to kill the members of an elite special ops team that worked off the radar in Iraq in the '90s? It's up to Dan Stagg to track down the survivors -- the men with whom he stormed an undefended surveillance station, killing everyone inside. And now, many years later, the team is being targeted in what seems like a series of unrelated attacks. Dan teams up with his old comrade Al Benson, once a rising star of the USMC, now a respectable married civilian with a few secrets to hide. As they dig deeper into the secrets of the past, Dan discovers that Benson's looking for more than just answers. An explosive affair threatens everyone's future, and connects Dan to a past he thought he'd left behind.

Straight Up: A Dan Stagg Novel (Dan Stagg Mystery)

Genre Fiction

Mitch Mitchell needs a vacation, and he is determined to make the most of his trip to the Mediterranean island of Gozo. Death never takes a break however, and at the behest of fellow doctor Bob Southern, Mitch soon finds himself investigating the demise of a young, gay lance corporal. The police have ruled it a suicide, but the young man's boyfriend claims it was murder. Suspecting an official cover-up of a queer scandal, Mitch gets to work on an investigation that leads him into a labyrinth of lies, false identities and secret sex. With tension, humor and plenty of Mitch Mitchell's exuberant sexual encounters, The Sun Goes Down cranks up the Mediterranean heat for one of his most baffling and dangerous cases.

Sun Goes Down: A Mitch Mitchell Mystery

To all appearances, Joe Heath is a typical straight married man, living with his wife and two teenage children, commuting to work, playing sports, enjoying a beer… But there are things about Joe that his friends don't know. For one thing, his relationship with his wife has deteriorated to the point that they're sleeping in separate bedrooms, only staying together until the kids have left home. And there's something else: for the last few years, Joe has wanted to have sex with another man. A chance encounter with a trainer at his gym launches Joe on a series of encounters - some casual, some serious, some comic, some dangerous, all of them erotic in the way that only James Lear can make them. Soon Joe is living a double life: breadwinner and father by day, sexual adventurer by night--his hunting ground the online dating sites that give him access to anyone and anything he wants. While My Wife's Away is a hot read, but it's also an odyssey of self-discovery, as Joe tests the limits of his new freedom. Can he survive in a world of instant sexual gratification? And will he ever find someone to love?

While My Wife's Away

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Books by Lear, James