Lev AC Rosen
Books: Mystery | Historical | Queer
Evander Mills: Lavender House (2022), The Bell in the Fog (2023)
Evander Mills
Lavender House (2022) #1
Set in San Francisco in 1952
Evan Mills has been dismissed from the SF police department after being caught in a raid at a queer club. Caught–quite literally–with his pants down. Now with no job, and no home (he was thrown out).
Even he wouldn’t meet my eye as he told me I was done. Conduct unbecoming, perversion, lewd acts. They said they wouldn’t lock me up, though. That was their one token for my years of service. They’d just let everyone know what I was and what they’d found me doing and my life in the real world would be over.
As he is contemplating ending his life, a woman comes up to him and offers him a job: to find out who killed her wife.
“Only that you’d say it out loud like that.” I try to keep my voice casual.
“Where we’re going, we say everything out loud,” she responds, her voice a growl imitating the engine.
Because Pearl and Irene had created a have for themselves and their family. A place where they could be themselves, openly, because they–and the staff who work at the house–are all queer and all have as much to lose if people discover the truth of Lavender House.
“The flowers,” she says. “Irene always liked having all the flowers around to pick new scents. Lavender was her favorite, though, so we grow that everywhere. That’s why we call this place Lavender House.” She pulls the car forward and laughs, deep and throaty. “Well, and for the other reason.”
This is far more of a noir than a cozy. Evan is caught out by his former co-workers who take delight in beating the shit out of him.
It’s a reminder of how the world used to be–and how it could become again.
“Are you a doctor?”
“Almost,” he says, pulling out a long string of bandages and pulling me forward to wrap my chest in them. “I was training as one, but then an ex sent the hospital I interned at some photos of me and him … Anyway. Can’t work in medicine anymore.”
But it’s also a murder mystery. Was Irene killed and if so, by whom?
What’s particularly good about the mystery is that when Evan meets everyone, they seem to be on their worst behavior–angry at Pearl for bringing in an outside, stressed after weeks of not knowing if Irene’s death was an accident or murder. And because Evan can hardly believe a place such as Lavender House exists, he views it–and everyone in it–with suspicion.
I don’t turn to look at her. I know my face is angry and I don’t want to give her the satisfaction. Sure, I was married to the job. What else was there for me to be married to?
It’s an excellent mystery and I already got the next book in the series.
Cover art by Colin Verdi
Characters: Evander Mills, Pearl Velez, Irene Lamontaine, Cliff Carbury, Henry Lamontaine, Margo Lamontaine, Elsie Gold, Alice, Judy, Dot, Mr. Pat Kelly, Gene Manalo, Gertie, George Cohen, Rachel Cohen, Jim, Sammy, Dr. Levinstein, Ralph Stockwell
Publisher: Forge Books
August 2026 | Rating: 9/10
The Bell in the Fog (2023) #2
Set in San Francisco in ~1952
The story takes place several months after the events of Lavender House. Evander Mills is trying to make his way as a queer private detective, but as he was once a copy, not many people seem to trust him, despite being housed above the Ruby and supposed by Elsie Gold.
“I heard you left the force,” he says.
“Yeah,” I say, approaching him.
“I heard you’re a fag now, too.”
“Always was,” I say, keeping my face even.
So when an old lover–one who disappeared without a word–appears needing to hire a PI, Andy doesn’t have a lot of choice.
A lot of the focus in this story is about McCarthyism, which is unfortunately, frighteningly jarring in today’s world.
“Reports, investigations. Thirty-seven hundred homosexual federal employees in DC, they said.” He stares at the ceiling, eyes wide for a moment, as if remembering. “I was sure I was on a list. I knew I was in trouble, we were all in trouble then, but I couldn’t just resign the day after they came looking.”
It’s also about how Andy is slowly rebuilding his life after being outed and losing his job.
“I don’t know who I am right now,” I say.
He doesn’t seem at all shocked or confused by that. He just nods. “Yeah, it happened to me, too, after I got kicked out of med school, started working here. It was like I had to rebuild everything. I’ve been … sort of waiting for you to get there.”
“Waiting?” I ask. “For me to realize I’m lost?”
“You can’t find yourself until you know you’re lost,” he says
About taking slow steps forward to become the person he wants to be, as opposed to be person he had to be, to hide while being a cop.
We also get a good deal of the nastiness of policing in the 1950s, as well as the underhanded parts of “finding” queers in the Navy.
Legally, bars are allowed to be queer now, they can’t shut us down just for having gay people inside. But cross-dressing can be deception, which is an arrest.
I took a man home one night, and the next week I was standing in front of a military tribunal listening to him tell everyone in cold, specific detail about everything we’d done. Apparently he was a … spy. He went out, had sex with navy men, then reported back about each of us.
First, I absolutely hated James from the get-go. I kept wanting him to be the murderer, and I knew right away he’d done something underhanded. But I also saw that Andy didn’t want to see that, and so missed what should have been obvious.
Secondly, despite everything, I liked Helen. She also lied to Andy, but she told him she wasn’t telling him the truth to protect him, and you could see exactly why she felt (at the time) Andy really couldn’t know what was going on.
Thirdly, we again get a look at what happens when justice is unevenly distributed, when a minority is persecuted and cannot turn to the law for help.
I am really enjoying these mysteries, and as horrifying as things were at that time, it’s lovely to be able to see how queer people were able to carve out lives and loves for themselves.
Characters: Evander Mills, Elsie Gold, Gene Manalo, Stan, Lee, Helen, James, Pat, Danny Geller, Donna Geller, Alfie, Joseph Cook and Sidney Cardwell, Sam Marks, Captain Jim Morris, Margo Lamontaine, Henry Lamontaine, Pearl Velez, Lou, Ralph O’Connell, Donald March, Jonathan
Publisher: Forge
August 2026 | Rating: 8.5/10