The same process that has made it possible for Lanyon to write a successful mainstream gay detective series has made it impossible (or at least implausible) for his character Holmes to posit outing as a plausible motive.Īnd yet, at the same time, the cozy detective novels - novels typically set in small towns with amateur sleuths - parallel the workings of the closet. The closet, except in very particular circumstances, has been emptied by the progress of gay rights. As the creator of the Miss Butterwith series of cozy mysteries, he knows that the closet no longer works as an impetus to murder.

WAIT.“I’D … USED the blackmailed-for-being-homosexual, and except in the case of politicians and public figures, that motive had pretty much rusted to a standstill,” Christopher Holmes admits in Josh Lanyon’s first Holmes and Moriarity mystery, Somebody Killed His Editor (2009).

In fact, it's been a year and a half since I went away on vacay with anyone at all. In the meantime, on Monday I'm headed off on vacation with my sisters for the first time in three years. Which inevitably get shoved to the back of the line, even though it's kind of crucial to know where the ship is ultimately headed. But I need a chunk of time to focus on some translation stuff, some audio projects, some other things I'm toying with, as well as long term strategizing.

THEN I'll start work on the final Holmes & Moriarity.Īnd THEN I'm taking a break from writing. I love, love, love country house murder mysteries and that's kind of what we have going on with that one: snow, secret passages, sinister strangers. The usual stuff that happens while staying with friends. It's coming.Īs soon as Lament at Loon Landing is safely launched, I'll fully dive into Corpse at Captain's Seat, which I anticipate going as quickly as Death at the Deep Dive did. I'm not going to guestimate the actual release because the book is clearly cursed and if I dare to name the release date, doom and disaster will follow. Coz that's how that works.īut we're closing in on finishing up.

I guess part of the problem is with all the delays (and all the bitching about the delays) it has turned the book into A Thing in my mind, which inevitably slows everything down even further. I'm not exactly sure what the hold-up has been, because as I'm working on it, it's pretty much like every other book in the series: cute, charming, fun. I'm currently back to working on Lament at Loon Landing.

In Other Words...Murder by Josh Lanyon