Year of Queer Lit

I am going to be honest with you. Mystery is not always my first instinct when I am browsing for something to read. I tend to drift toward sapphic fantasy like a moth to a very gay flame. But every now and then a mystery comes along that grabs me by the collar and does not let go, and when that happens in queer lit it is something really special. These four books did exactly that.

Under the Saltwater Moon by Christa Hickcox

I need to talk about Millie Myles. She is an absolute favorite of mine and I will not apologize for how loud I am about it. Millie is a wannabe PI stumbling into her first unofficial investigation, which quickly goes from intriguing to genuinely dangerous as the missing people start piling up. The mystery itself is gripping and the Pacific Northwest setting is gorgeous. But what really sets this book apart is the care Christa Hickcox brings to writing neurodivergence. Christa wrote Millie from a place of personal understanding, and it shows on every page. This is not neurodivergence as a quirk or a plot device. It is a fully realized, beautifully human portrayal of what it actually feels like to move through the world that way.

Christa is also an OG supporter of Year of Queer Lit and one of the loveliest humans in this community. I was lucky enough to ARC read this one and I have been yelling about it ever since. This is part of a series and when the next book comes out I want a pink bot boy and if you have read this you know exactly what I mean. Go read it immediately.

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

Think Knives Out but make it queer and set in 1952 San Francisco. Andy Mills is a gay ex-cop who gets fired after being caught in a raid on a gay bar and finds himself hired to investigate the suspicious death of a soap empire matriarch. The twist is that her estate, Lavender House, is a place where an entire found family of queer people live openly and honestly behind closed gates, which in 1952 is nothing short of extraordinary. When Andy arrives he is seduced by the safety of this hidden world and then horrified to realize one of them might be a murderer. This is historical queer noir at its absolute best and it has a whole series to dive into after you finish it.

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

If you want your mystery wrapped in Edwardian magic with a side of enemies to lovers slow burn m/m romance, this is your book. Robin accidentally gets appointed as a civil service liaison to a secret magical society and finds himself cursed, plagued by visions, and stuck working with Edwin, who is cold, prickly, and absolutely fascinating. What starts as a search for Robin’s missing predecessor turns into something much bigger and much more dangerous. The world building is stunning, the magic system is genuinely creative, and Robin and Edwin’s relationship is the kind of slow burn that has you reading at 2am because you cannot put it down. If you like Bridgerton but wished it had more magic and was significantly more gay, this is exactly what you are looking for.

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

This one is the odd one out on this list in the best possible way. No historical settings, no magic, just a sharp and funny contemporary mystery set in New York. Claudia Lin works for a secret company that investigates people’s online dating profiles and she stumbles onto something much bigger and far more dangerous than a catfish. It is witty and smart and paced like a thriller, with a Chinese American bisexual lead and a really fresh take on what modern mystery can look like. If you have been looking for queer mystery that feels completely different from everything else you have read, this is it.

Four very different books, four very different flavors of queer mystery. Drop a comment and tell me which one you are starting first, and come yell at me about Millie Myles in the Discord. You can join us here: https://discord.gg/6fb475q76B