Bywater Books

Doubting Thomas: a Novel

Ann McMan

Two-time Lambda Literary Award-winning author Ann McMan introduces readers to a spinster postal investigator for the Winston-Salem Dead Letter Office who finds herself enmeshed in the mystery of solving who is sending undeliverable love letters to the town's 18th-century hortus medicus. The year is 1960, and Gunsmoke is the most popular show on TV. Elvis Presley tops the Billboard charts, and a charismatic young senator named John F. Kennedy is running for president. And, in North Carolina, four young Black men sit down at a Woolworth's lunch counter and demand service. Enter Esther Jane (EJ) Cloud, a forty-something spinster who manages the Dead Letter Office at the Winston-Salem post office. EJ leads a quiet life in her Old Salem ancestral home and spends her free time volunteering in the town's 18th century medicinal garden. One sunny Spring morning, EJ's simple life is turned upside down when the town's master gardener unceremoniously hands her a stack of handwritten letters that have all been addressed to a nonexistent person at the garden. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that will lead EJ on a life-altering quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious letter writer--and into a surprising head-on confrontation with the harsh realities of the racial injustice that is as deeply rooted in the life of her community as the ancient herbs cultivated in the Moravian garden. When EJ is forced to read the letters to look for clues about the anonymous sender, what she discovers are lyrical tales of a forbidden passion that threaten to unravel the simple contours of her unexamined life. EJ's official quest soon morphs into a journey of self-discovery as she becomes more deeply enmeshed in the fate of the mysterious letter writer, Dorothea. Her surprising accomplice in solving the mystery of the letters becomes one, Harrie Hart: a savvy, street smart ten-year-old, wielding an eye patch and a limitless supply of aphorisms. Together, Harrie and EJ make seminal pilgrimages to the tiny town of Paradise to try and uncover the identity of the mercurial sender and, ultimately, learn a better way to navigate the changing world around them.

Dead Letters from Paradise

Casey Hamilton

Told in a series of interconnecting stories of strangers and friends using a popular hookup app, MENAFTER10 is a rich and raw depiction of how hard it is being Black, gay, and online.

Menafter10

Mari Sangiovanni

The third book in Marie Santora's search for true love finds her big Italian family still serving the up the fun, Italian style: Loud, lusty, and volatile--overflowing with lots of love and laughter. What's funny about losing everything you love? Plenty, if you're a member of the Santora family. Marie Santora has always suffered from an enormous case of good luck/bad luck when it comes to women, and the past six years have been no exception. When Marie's love life hits the skids--again--her irrepressible sister Lisa begins to wonder if this is the time that her sister's loss is too great for even their eccentric Italian family to heal. To help Marie escape the painful memories, Lisa ditches her gay campground for a family lake house, and Marie vows to be done with straight girls once and for all. But just as the Santora clan descends upon Marie to help, a surprise house call changes her good luck to bad luck once again, putting Mari's willpower to the ultimate test. The family motto has always been Either you're IN, or you're OUT! and this newest family crisis means the Santora's are ALL IN--even though Marie wants them out!

80% Done with Straight Girls

Ann Aptaker

Lambda Literary Award-winning author returns with a stunning mystery proving that Noir is the new black. A golden city of prosperity, energy, the exciting engine of the American Dream. Just underneath, though, is a dark city, with darker ambitions. This is the world of Cantor Gold, dapper art thief and smuggler, who has her own way of securing the rewards of the American Dream. In the conformist 1950s, when same-sex romance was illegal, Cantor decides that any Law that condemns her as a criminal just for her love of women is not a Law she owes any allegiance to. As an outlaw, she thrives earning fistfuls of cash and living life on her own terms. But someone wants to take it all away. Someone wants to rob Cantor of everything: her success in the underworld, her freedom, her life. Predators are out to destroy Cantor: the cops who violently raid the Green Door Club, Cantor's favorite watering hole, where the lights are low and the women are willing; and worse, an unknown predator who threatens to destroy Cantor's life, even destroy the lives of people close to her. Murder is one of the weapons in the hunter's arsenal, involving Cantor in the dangerous fate of each corpse. Another is the taunting, threatening notes that turn up on the corpses or at Cantor's door or at the door of people she visits. And then there are the phone calls and a disguised voice. Someone is invading every minute of Cantor Gold's life.

Bywater Books

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