The Bell in the Fog

The Bell in the Fog (2023) Lev Ac Rosen (Evander Mills #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

Rating: 8.5/10

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