A long-defunct gay activist group seems to be threatening radio shock jock Jay Plankton. As The J-Bird, the man's hate-filled rants offend Strachey deeply. Among the subjects Stevenson tackles in this series entry is homophobia in modern police services like the NYPD, where coming out carries more than its usual share of costs.From Publishers WeeklyIn Tongue Tied: A Donald Strachey Mystery, Richard Stevenson's eighth amusing whodunit to feature his gay Albany, N.Y., PI, Strachey has to figure out who tossed a tear-gas canister into the studio of Jay Plankton (aka "J-Bird''), the first of other, increasingly bizarre attacks on the radio "shock jock" during the period leading up to the 2000 elections. Straight and gay readers will appreciate the author's wry social commentary. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the AuthorRichard Stevenson is the pseudonym for Richard Lipez. As Stevenson, he is the author of eight novels featuring Albany private investigator Donald Strachey. As Lipez, he writes journalism and reviews crime fiction for newspapers such as the Berkshire Eagle and The Washington Post.

Violence interrupts quiet reflection on tragedy when Donald and Timmy visit Washington to view the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Unexpected stories about a disgraced, conservative congresswoman, and a gay Lothario with designs on Strachey are catalysts for Donald's investigation into a memorial to a man who isn't quite as dead as he seems.(Originally published 1998.)

Gary Griswold, cheerily dim gadfly scion of Albany old money, late of the Key West artists colony, goes missing, and his ex-wife wants to know what's happened to him - not to mention his 38 million dollars in cash. Turns out that religious dilettante Gary and his money have disappeared into Thailand, where corruption has its own etiquette. Soon, Albany's only gay PI, Don Strachey, is out of his element, and his lover Timmy is way out of his comfort zone as they comb the Land of Smiles for a man with an unerring weakness for the poorest choice possible and a daft plan to buy 38 million dollars worth of good karma. #10 in the award-winning Donald Strachey Mystery Series

Attacks on Janet Osborne lend new significance to the earlier murder of her brother Eric. They were holding out to keep the family newspaper a beacon of liberal advocacy journalism. A screwy plot to save the newspaper turns tragic and even screwier before Strachey and a driven reporter step in to sort it all out.From BooklistAlbany's best-known gay private eye, Donald Strachey, and his longtime lover, Timmy Callahan, return in a Lou Grantlike plot. A liberal newspaper is up for sale, and the family that owns it is divided between a liberal media firm's bid and the higher one from a chain that pays more attention to the ads than to editorial content. When Strachey enters, one of the party that wants to take the lower-paying offer is already dead, and two attempts have been made on the life of another. The plot strikes home for Strachey when it comes out that, back in high school, Timmy was another family member's lover. The new series entry features one of Stevenson's most interesting characters yet--dikey Dale, a surgeon who spares no feelings and minces no words during any of her appearances. Dale and her lover, Janet, should open up the Donald Strachey Mystery Fan Club to include many who ordinarily read only lesbian mysteries. Charles HarmonReview"[Richard Stevenson's] mysteries are among the wittiest and politically pointed around today."--The Washington Post"Stevenson manages to bring new urgency to the crazy family scenario...enough to make you pack Uzis and hand grenades to your next family reunion."--Kirkus Reviews

In an election year, Don finds himself in the unlikely role of political operative. Rumors about the Tea Party's opportunistic gubernatorial candidate, Kenyon Louderbush, paint him as an unfaithful, callous exploiter of young men...young men that he puts into the hospital...or perhaps the morgue. Don smells truth in those rumors. But, he's confounded by a shadowy conspiracy, witnesses' fear and a grieving family appallingly willing to give up on justice for a brutalized son and brother. In RED WHITE AND BLACK AND BLUE, series creator Stevenson takes witty aim at the polarization, dissembling and double-dealing of American politics. It's a story that leaves even our hero, Don, tarnished and bruised.

Young Paul Haig dies after hiring PI Donald Strachey. Despite his dislike of her, Strachey agrees with the boy's homophobic mother: Paul didn't commit suicide. But, she clings to deep denial about her son's sexual orientation. Conversion therapy - interventions to create ex-gays - get the once over in this Strachey mystery, and it ain't a pretty sight. 1995 Lambda Finalist

Lambda Literary Award-winning author delves into the sudden and extraordinary wave of gay-bashing in 1940s Philadelphia. It's steaming August in post-war Philadelphia. Clifford Waterman, dishonorably discharged from the Army for "an indecent act with a native" in Cairo, can't go back to his job as a police detective and is struggling to make a go of it as a private investigator. He's soon hired to help a young man caught in a gay bar raid who can't afford the $500 bribe a corrupt judge demands to make a "morals charge" go away. In the blink of an eye, an entire gay neighborhood is suddenly under siege, and Waterman has to find out why the cops, courts, and the city powers that be have unleashed a wave of brutal gay-bashing—astonishing even for that time and place. Kept moving by Jim Beam, bluesy jazz, and a stubborn sense of outsider's pride, Waterman makes his way through Philadelphia's social, political, and financial swamp to rescue a few...

Re-release Dot and Edith's happiness in their home stands in the way of their neighbors' decisions to sell to the Millpond Corporation so it can build another blight on the landscape. A campaign of intimidation, at first merely irritating, escalates to murder before PI Strachey sorts it all out and learns something about his feeling for lover Timothy Callahan. Filmed for release by HereTV in 2008 Originally published in 1984

Someone's left a man's body in Donald Strachey's car -- the grandson of Albany's most connected political fixer. A letter from the deceased asks Strachey to dismantle his grandfather's party machine. Like a chess master, Strachey moves ten suitcases, an army of colorful pawns (all of whom think they're king), and $2.5 million across the continent and around Albany. One of the funniest in the series.From Publishers WeeklyDon Strachey is the gay private eye who scored a hit in Stevenson's thriller, On the Other Hand, Death. A case of murder keeps Strachey and his lover, Timmy Callahan, at home in Albany during a fierce winter because the victim was planted in the detective's car. The dead man, Jack Lenihan, had left a letter in which he asked Strachey to deliver 2.5 million in laundered money to the city's reform political party. But the money has vanished, sending Strachey on a dangerous errand to recover it from merciless killers. Suspecting that Lenihan had stolen the fortune from the drug dealers who were his former associates, Strachey flies to Los Angeles to question Lenihan's mother and friends, a mission with stunning results. Back in Albany, the detective hijacks the millions but the thieves kidnap and hold Timmy for ransom, a situation Strachey resolves in an act daring to the point of foolhardiness. This scene, as well as the disposition of Lenihan's legacy, form the climax of an entirely unpredictable, witty and raunchy adventure. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review"With steady action, a nicely uncurling plot, and a vivid supporting cast, THIS IS LIVELY, ATMOSPHERIC ENTERTAINMENT. -- Kirkus Reviews

Despite the fact that he was not fond of Queer Nation activist John Rutka--notorious for his self-righteous ""outing"" of Albany's closeted gays--gay private eye Don Strachey agrees to help out when Rutka is shot and his house is firebombed.From Publishers WeeklyThis fourth mystery to feature Donald Strachey, a gay private investigator in Albany, N.Y., is nothing if not au courant. In the first five pages, readers encounter a gay-bashing incident, a patient dying of AIDS and activists wearing Queer Nation T-shirts.But the punch and distinctive voice of the earlier books are diminished here: it's as if Stevenson is overly concerned with political statements. Fearing for his life, writer/activist John Rutka--determinedly engaged in "outing" prominent citizens--retains Strachey when a bullet grazes his foot, but Strachey abandons the case when he suspects that the incident was staged. Soon our hero has a real mystery on his hands: Rutka is found dead, and any number of people might have cheerfully dispatched him. Rutka's files point to a particularly sinister closeted homosexual whom Strachey must unmask. Though the book's final third shifts into gear, it's not high enough; if a polemic was intended, the fuel gauge reads "low." At one point Strachey is "weary of all the secrecy and duplicity and dreary bitchery"--more of those very qualities might have at least jazzed up this rather pallid effort. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsWhen gay activist John Rutka engineers his own endangerment to generate sympathy and business for his outing'' publication, it backfires: Gay p.i. Don Strachey (Ice Blues, etc.) quickly quits bodyguarding him, and one of Rutka's many enemies takes the opportunity to kidnap him and burn him so badly that it takes forensic dentistry to identify the body. Which closet gay wanted to protect his own homosexual exposure? Rutka's files lead to a TV newscaster, a politician's aide, and someone referred to only asAll-American Asshole Mega-Hypocrite,'' a man Strachey ties in to weekly trysts with the newscaster at a hot-sheets motel. Meanwhile, Strachey and boyfriend Tim make regular hospital visits to a comatose AIDS friend, grapple with the concept of assisted-death, and Strachey finally connects a VIP with Rutka's files--for a too- pat ending involving pedophilia, coincidences par excellence, and impropriety from several clerics. The too-telegraphed plot undercuts some very nice views of Albany and a wry, unconventional shamus-sleuth. Stevenson is adept at handling people and places--now he needs a workable rather than workmanlike plot to put them through their paces. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Richard Stevenson (aka Richard Lipez)Gay activist and accused murderer Billy Blount's missing, but Albany PI Donald Strachey doubts Billy's guilt. The 1981 book that launched Richard Stevenson's pioneering series is a cracking mystery and a fascinating trip into bygone gay culture - before HIV, in the bad old days of bath houses and gay disco, police corruption and tacit policies of harassment. (Originally published 1981.)