Lev AC Rosen
Books: Mystery | Historical | Queer
Evander Mills: Lavender House (2022), The Bell in the Fog (2023), Rough Pages (2024), Mirage City (2025)
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
Rough Pages (2024) #3
Set in San Francisco in 1953
Andy is finally accepted by the community, and slowly coming to believe in his own worth as he solves problems for those who can’t turn to the authorities.
He also ends up–with Lee–with an unexpected title.
I’ve even made a healthy business as a matchmaker, helping folks who need dates and cover stories for outings with the company or family.
But when he finally heads out to Lavender House, or dinner with the family to celebrate the adoption of a new baby, he has a second reason for making the trip he’s avoided for months.
“I hope they don’t think of death when they see me.” I’m surprised when I say it. I hadn’t meant for that thought to escape my head.
Pat might be in trouble–they all might be in trouble.
Sending obscene material through the mail is a federal offense, right?” He lets the cigarette fall from his hand and it lands with a splatter of red embers. He stomps it out.
“Sure, but how would that be bad for you, or the family?”
He swallows and looks up at me. Pat is usually so filled with mirth and mischief, but now he looks truly scared. “Don’t you get it? We mail subscribers the books. That means we need … their names, addresses…”
Honestly, it’s surprising how much I’m enjoying these books, considering the constant reminders of what it was like to be queer in the 1950s.
“I could just trace where that number goes. Mention it to some of the boys.”
“The boys already found me once, Chief. Cracked a few ribs, but I lived.” It comes out angry, and he turns to me.
“What did you expect them to do?”
And how much we have failed to learn from the past.
Books. Imagine if they went into every house in America that had one of the books in that pile there, and dragged the occupants out in handcuffs. There wouldn’t be anyone left who ever read anything. But … maybe that’s the idea, you think? First get rid of the queer books, then all the rest of them?
This story also involves the mob, and a reporter who I really really don’t like.
Privacy is … an old-fashioned idea. The truth belongs to everyone.
Bentham and Mill and Machiavelli were wrong. The ends never justify the means.
Characters: Evander Mills, Elsie Gold, Gene Manalo, Stan, Lee, Margo Lamontaine, Cliff Carbury, Henry Lamontaine, Pearl Velez, Rina (Irene) Lamontaine, Pat, DeeDee (Dorothea) Lamb, Howard Salzberger, Rose Rainmeyer, Tim Rainmeyer, Joshua Cantor, Oscar Santos, Elena Moleno, Joseph Aldermann, Michael (Bridges) Parisi, Merle
Cover illustration by Colin Verdi
Publisher: Forge Books
September 2026 | Rating: 8.5/10
Mirage City (2025) #4
Set in San Francisco in 1953
It’s been a year since Andy began working above the Ruby.
I’ve been here over a year now, the matchmaking business, pairing up queer people in heterosexual-looking relationships to appease work or family, and crafting stories for them: how they met, how they ended it. It’s half my business at this point. I like it, it’s easy and helps people out. But it’s not especially interesting these days.
The story revolves around two things: the Mattachine Society and the early fight for queer rights, and conversion therapy.
The second part of that was horrible, but not nearly as awful as it could have been, considering what historical medical “treatments” could consist of for the past couple centuries.
Things start with a missing persons case: a woman wants to find members who have not come to recent meetings.
“You want me to drive to LA and ask them if they’re kidnapping members in San Francisco?”
“Well…” She looks down. It’s exactly what she wanted. But out loud, it sounds absurd.
Except, it’s a secret society so she has nothing but first names and descriptions. But it’s what Andy does, so he heads down to LA–where he grew up and his mother still lives–to see what he can learn.
In addition to the Mattachine Society we also get to learn about gay biker gangs and Hollywood fixers.
Most of my business is setting up fake relationships for folks to keep their jobs or fool their parents.”
“That’s what I do, too!” Leo says, thrilled. He sits on the arm of the chair I’m in and leans down. “Isn’t it fun?”
“You make up relationships, too?” I ask.
“I work for a studio. Mum’s the word on which. But creating lavender couples for tabloids is my raison d’être!”
Past stories have given us a little about Andy’s time in the navy during WWII. Here we have vets from the war that came after.
We all served. Me, Tommy, and Stan in Korea. Russ and Will were in the Ninth Army. All of us kept our motorcycles.
Be warned, there are some awful bits here, mostly related to conversion therapy but also a good deal of homophobia, as you’d expect from the time period.
“What about swishy men, or men who dress as women?” asks a man in his forties after the lecture is over.
“Or the women who wear suits?” asks a woman next to him.
“That’s a different pathology entirely,” Dr. Bryner says. “Though interlinked with homosexuality in some cases, it speaks to a deeper deviance. One that should be treated.”
Everyone smiles, relieved.
Here, as with the previous books, nothing is black and white, and bad actions can end up seeing far more forgivable than “good” actions.
Sadly for me, this is the last published book in the series, and I don’t see a new book listed, so I’m sad about not having another Evander Mills book to read.
Characters: Evander Mills, Gene Manalo, Lee, Elsie Gold, Mary Mills, Daphne, Edward, Hank, Ava, Myrtle Bolton, Dr. North, Samuel Blanchard, Leo, Marie, Ethel, Vera, Vera, Mannix, Mattie, Russell Klein, Javi, Russ, Stan, George Quaintance, Henry Nolton, Marge, Will, Marianne Nolton, Virginia Nolton, Helen, Pat, Pearl, Shelly, Dr. Bryner
Cover illustration by Colin Verdi
Publisher: Minotaur Books
September 2026 | Rating: 8.5/10