Spotlight: The Bell In The Fog
A (non-furry) 50's queer mystery!
Sometimes in this space I’ll tell you about some cool books I’ve read, and last year a friend of mine got me The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen, a mystery that takes place in the gay community of 1950’s San Francisco.
I should say up front that The Bell in the Fog is the second book about detective Evander “Andy” Mills, an ex-cop turned P.I. with an office over a well-known gay club. I didn’t know that when I started it, but as the first couple chapters alluded to some background that felt like it had been written about elsewhere, I did suspect and went to look it up. I’ll be checking out Lavender House (and the two books following this one), but my enjoyment of this book wasn’t at all diminished by not having read that one first.
Anyway, Andy is in kind of a limbo. Cops in SF in the 50’s were not on good terms with the gay community. A “well-known” club would be tolerated as long as the police were paid well to look the other way, and still would be subject to periodic raids. As an ex-cop, Andy is looked on with a lot of suspicion by his community. A significant part of this story is him building trust through the case he’s taking on.
Another big part deals with his past, not on the police force, but in the Navy, with James (his friend and sometime lover) and Helen (their friend who knows their secret). Andy’s lost touch with both of them, but the case he takes begins when James turns up in his office needing him to track down a blackmailer to get some compromising pictures back. Following the case forward also means following his memories backwards, to when James left him and Helen after the war without a word.
Rosen takes us through gay San Francisco in the present (of the story) and through Andy’s Navy past with great care and a beautiful descriptive touch. You know how I love characters and boy, is this book full of them. I loved the time I spent with them in its pages.
And the mystery is pretty good, too. It feels very akin to a Sam Spade noir, except that the world isn’t irredeemable here; the friendship and love in the gay community is what can save people. Still, Andy has to go through some pretty rough scenes to get to the truth, and in that way this feels like a story Hammett would’ve appreciated.
If you like queer stories and mysteries and private eyes, I highly recommend checking out Lev AC Rosen’s series.