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BOOK REVIEW: ‘Death Checks In’

In 1947, being gay could get a man in trouble. But Milwaukee detective Heath Barrington knew there’d be more anonymity for him and officer Alan Keyes at the posh Edmonton Hotel in Chicago.

With plenty of entertainment nearby and a live show with a band inside the hotel, Heath even offered to purchase a tuxedo for Alan. That’s when Barrington met haberdasher Victor Blount at an upscale men’s clothing store.

• A nice weekend getaway would be plenty of time for a romantic rendezvous—had Heath left work alone. But when Blount was found dead in the back room of the clothing store with “W” scrawled on the floor in his blood and a spool of green thread in his hand, a weekend was also long enough to solve a crime.

• This noir whodunit is a worthwhile getaway with that old-black-and-white-movie feel that you know you love, and it’s sweetly chaste, in a late-1940s way. If you can make it through the tedious parts and you love noir mysteries that are more on the light side, check out Death Checks In. Bold Strokes Books (boldstrokebooks.com). 

This article appears in the November 2018 edition of OutSmart magazine.

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Terri Schlichenmeyer

Terry Schlichenmeyer is a regular contributor to OutSmart Magazine.
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