Created by Jack Ricardo
Out of the closet and out of a job, what’s a poor ex-cop to do?
New York City police officer ARCHIE CAIN finds himself in just that predicament in The Night G.A.A. Died, a 1992 novel that takes a hard and unapologetic look at the rise of the gay lib movement in the early seventies. It seems that the NYPD isn’t quite as liberated as Archie had hoped, and when he’s driven off the force, he reinvents himself, this time as a Greenwich Village private eye.
Newly politicized and defiantly out, he meets Max, the personable vice-president of the Gay Activists Alliance while cruising down at the waterfront one night, but before they can get to know each other better, Max is murdered. It’s all here: suicide, murder, drugs, gay-bashing, arson… even the KGB, the FBI and the CIA make guest appearances.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This looked like that start of a great series, but Ricardo, who had already written on the Leather movement and other gay issues, seems to have never followed through, although he did write a couple of other P.I. novels, Death with Dignity (1991) featuring private investigator Jim Halden, and Desperate Innocence (2013), starring a Florida P.I. named Jim Holden.
Halden? Holden? Coincidence? Nah, it’s the same guy…
But speaking of coincidences… The Night G.A.A. Died was published under St. Martin Press’ Stonewall Inn imprint, named after the site of the notorious 1969 riots that sparked the gay lib movement.
UNDER OATH
- “A bit too fiercely gay for mainstream readers, though as a moody look back at the beginnings of gay liberation, Ricardo’s debut rings true. It’s the mystery plot overlaid on the facts that seems false.”
— Kirkus Reviews - “While avoiding graphic sex scenes, Ricardo vividly illuminates the culture and mores of the book’s milieu. Some elements of the quickly paced plot may be far-fetched, but the era and the issues–early gay-rights activism and the Cold War–are credibly depicted”
— Publishers Weekly - “A lean and efficient writer, Jack Ricardo achieves some shocking effects in this fast-moving tale set back in the age of the happy raunch.”
— Richard Stevenson - “One of my all time favorite “gay mysteries” although I’m not sure why, because by the end, what with the F.B.I. and C.I.A. and K.G.B., the plot seems to have taken a sharp left and sped right off the edge of the map.
Kicked out of the NYPD for coming out, PI Archie Cain gets his first case investigating the death of a Gay Activists Alliance VP. Since Cain was having sex with the victim at the time of the murder, he has a personal investment in making sure the cops get it right. Ricardo writes clean, effective prose in a wry tone that gives this novel, set in the militant 1970s, a nostalgic, almost poignant feel.
Smart and sardonic, ex-cop Archie Cain would have made a great series protagonist. And the totally closeted, boyish Johnny is Archie’s perfect foil. Too bad we never get to see their relationship evolve, or follow their further adventures, but after a decade, it’s probably too much to hope for a sequel.”
— Diana Killian
NOVELS
- The Night G.A.A. Died (1992) | Buy this book
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- A Queer Eye for the New Eyes
Josh Lanyon digs the new breed. - Down These Mean Streets A Gay Man Must Also Go
Drewey Wayne Gunn looks at the history of the gay P.I. - What Were Once Vices…
Some Notable Gay and Lesbian Eyes
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
