Murder in the Rue Dauphine by Greg Herren Holy Hell by Elizabeth Sims Both books published by Alyson Popular culture studies have long been examining the ways complex issues are represented in and by the mass media, and how they are treated in terms of cinematic and literary representations. For example, during much of the 1980s when the HIV/AIDS illnesses were claiming many lives, Hollywood released numerous horror movies, such as The Fly, The Thing, and some argue even the Alien series, that contained veiled references to an unstoppable illness that transformed the body causing hideous pain and ultimately death. It wasn’t until the mid 90s that the tame Philadelphia came to our screens, the first major studio film to deal with the virus. The horror movies were the cinema makers’ way of visualising our fears of the unknown, of talking about the untalkable in a way that allowed for a modicum of discourse apart from the safe sex/grim reaper ads that populated the screens in our own living rooms. In a similar way detective fiction has long been used by gay and lesbian writers to explore political and social issues that are deserving of examination. From precursive Radcliffe Hall through to the 60s pulp fiction novels and into today’s Stoner McTavish, crime fiction has been used to detail not only the seedy worlds of vice that were traditionally associated with queerdom, but also the queer as victim myths, the causes and consequences of homophobia, and even the beneficial aspects of same-sex love in a world gone mad with heterosexuality. Less threatening than political pamphlets, and possibly more far reaching in terms of audience, the gay and lesbian detective novel is also one of the most commercially successful “pink” genres. Two prime examples are Holy Hell and Murder in the Rue Dauphine. The first tells the tale of Lillian Bird, a small-town reporter who is dragged into amateur detectivism via a night out at one of her favourite dyke bars. What follows is a well-told, often funny story of intrigue and murder, with a dash of ex-lovers and stalkers thrown in for good measure. More importantly it also deals with the ways religion impacts on lesbian's lives, in a personal, rather than broad social, way and the impact of the continuing corporate closet. One of the characters is heavily influenced by her fundamentalist mother; the central victim is a woman whose widower refuses to speak openly with investigators and tries to cover up his wife’s more “exuberant” sexuality. The second focuses on a private eye, Chanse MacLeod, a gay man living in New Orleans. Chanse is drawn into his case by an appointment with a man who is being blackmailed; the man turns up murdered and thus begins a trawl through queer marches, gay bars, gyms and cafes and other assorted avenues and situations in search of what may be a hate crime perpetrator. Via the use of a secondary character, the author Greg Herren takes on “professional” gays, those annoying queens who inhabit the student and community politics scene, making their living by claiming victim status at every opportunity, rejecting logic and evidence in their attempts to grab at media headlines and others heart strings. There are also less-than-subtle stabs at clones, cliches and other stereotypes, and although the narrative sets a rollicking pace and can be read as a generic murder thriller, it can also be seen as an expert critique of how members of the queer community can propagate these stereotypes as much as our straight friends. While neither novel is earth shattering in their originality, they both succeed rather well at being good, enjoyable light reading and quality commentaries on contemporary social situations. Sims and Herren have a handy talent of sustaining pacy narratives without getting bogged down, but still getting their respective points across. In short, if you’re after a nice weekend read with a good social bite in the backside, you could do far worse than checking out these two new releases from Alyson.