Dear Friends and Readers,
One of my favorite publishers, Bold Strokes Press--which has reprinted The Lure, Late in the Season, and Looking Glass Lives, as well as putting out four collections of my shorter fiction--has announced the publication of my newest novel. It is unlike anything I've written in years -- a historical mystery set in the 1880's. The first of what I hope will be several of my investigations into gender and sexuality in the past while I'm telling a good story.
Handsome, intelligent, street-smart, ruthlessly ambitious and omnisexual, young Addison Grimmins has been hired by the Lord Exchequer of England to be his second and to do what Lord R. cannot do himself. After a country estate wedding, the Marchioness of R. is discovered missing. Is it a kidnapping or a more sinister plot? Addison vows to find her and bring her back no matter what it takes. It is the 1880's and despite only letters and telegrams as communicaitons, despite only horse, coach and train service as transportatiuon, Addison tracks Lady R. across Europe, via the strangest people and places: from Venetian palaces to opium dens. Who and what he discovers about her and more fatefully about himself will lead Addison to the crisis of his life, an extraordinary decision, and a stiletto duel with his most impaclable foe.
Historical novelist Jess Wells: "Picano writes the past with vividness, authenticity, unexpected twists and engaging language. You're carried along in his adventures from Covent Garden to the Stage, a male bordello and upper crust clubs, cheering for his hero amid danger at every turn."
Trade paperback 13:978-1635558708 $18.95
Also in most electronic versions