{"id":27431,"date":"2026-08-25T15:55:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=27431"},"modified":"2026-09-13T09:53:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T13:53:43","slug":"the-bell-in-the-fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/27431","title":{"rendered":"The Bell in the Fog"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bell in the Fog<\/em><\/a> (2023) Lev Ac Rosen<\/a> (Evander Mills #2)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Set in San Francisco in ~1952<\/p>\n

The story takes place several months after the events of Lavender House<\/em><\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard you left the force,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I say, approaching him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard you\u2019re a fag now, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways was,\u201d I say, keeping my face even.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A lot of the focus in this story is about McCarthyism, which is unfortunately, frighteningly jarring in today’s world.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports, investigations. Thirty-seven hundred homosexual federal employees in DC, they said.\u201d He stares at the ceiling, eyes wide for a moment, as if remembering. \u201cI was sure I was on a list. I knew I was in trouble, we were all in trouble then, but I couldn\u2019t just resign the day after they came looking.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s also about how Andy is slowly rebuilding his life after being outed and losing his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who I am right now,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t seem at all shocked or confused by that. He just nods. \u201cYeah, 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\u2019ve been \u2026 sort of waiting for you to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWaiting?\u201d I ask. \u201cFor me to realize I\u2019m lost?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t find yourself until you know you\u2019re lost,\u201d he says<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Legally, bars are allowed to be queer now, they can\u2019t shut us down just for having gay people inside. But cross-dressing can be deception, which is an arrest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u2019d done. Apparently he was a \u2026 spy. He went out, had sex with navy men, then reported back about each of us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Characters<\/strong>: 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\u2019Connell, Donald March, Jonathan<\/p>\n

Publisher: Forge<\/p>\n

Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,292,204,33,207,8,742,43,148,936],"tags":[979,978,544,992],"class_list":["post-27431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-ebook","category-good","category-historical","category-mental-health-rep","category-mystery","category-physical-health","category-private-eye","category-queer","category-single-point-of-view","tag-evander-mills","tag-lev-ac-rosen","tag-mm","tag-post-world-war-ii-era"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-78r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27476,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/27476","url_meta":{"origin":27431,"position":0},"title":"Rough Pages","author":"Michelle","date":"September 3, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Rough Pages (2024) Lev Ac Rosen (Evander Mills #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. 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