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I wanted to start a discussion about this well-loved mystery series because I just read the latest release: Boystown 5: Murder Book.

The blurb for the first book, which is actually a collection of three shorter mysteries, gives you the basic premise of the series:

A former police officer turned private investigator, Nick Nowak is haunted by his abrupt departure from the department, as well as, the traumatic end of his relationship with librarian Daniel Laverty. In these three stories set in Chicago during the early eighties, Nick locates a missing young man for a mysterious client, solves a case of arson at a popular nightspot, and goes undercover to prove a dramatic suicide was actually murder. When he isn't detecting, and sometimes when he is, Nick moves through a series of casual relationships. But his long suppressed romantic side surfaces when he meets Detective Bert Harker. Will he give love another chance? Or, will he continue to bury himself in the arms of strangers?

I no longer have my reviews of the previous books, so forgive me for going out of order and starting with the latest first. Perhaps others can add their thoughts on the earlier entries in the series.

I haven't started this series yet Jax. Given that I'm almost finished with Bidulka's Quant series, I thought I'd save Marshall's work as replacement for that. I AM however very much looking forward to reading these books and can't wait to hear what you and others have to say about your reading of them.

The opening sentence of Boystown 5: Murder Book packs a real punch. After reading just that one line, I turned off my kindle and put it aside for several hours. When I came back to it, I found that there was another surprise just a few sentences later. What an opening!

I can't do a real review of this installment because the whole thing would be one big spoiler. Just know that this is an emotional ride that is every bit as good as all the other books - and may be the best one yet.

It has all the elements we've come to love: the gruff, take-no-shit Nick, the crisp, no-frills prose, and the wonderful details that put you squarely in 1980s Chicago. This time it's the fall of 1982 and the city is dealing with the Tylenol murders that had the whole country in a panic. But that's just the backdrop. Nick is dealing with a much more personal case. And that's all I'm going to say.

I wanted to comment on the sex in these books, though, because it's really kind of genius. We get sex in a romantic context when Nick's with his lover and we also get the down 'n dirty encounters he has with whomever catches his eye. It's another way in which the time period is established, this prevalence of casual sex, and it also allows for some hot, quick encounters. The sex in these books comes from a very masculine sensibility. It's rough and fast and dirty but then there's also moments of loving and caring between committed partners.

And I appreciate that all of it is kept brief. Not that I don't like the sex bits, but I hate those scenes that go on for pages and pages! Sex is an important part of Nick's life, but in the sense that he gets it when he wants it or when an opportunity presents itself. His attitude toward sex is a refreshing change of pace from the romance books that act like it's not a successful consummation unless you've seen the face of god!

Finally, there's one more thing this has in common with the other books in the series: an end that leaves you aching for the next book. I hope you are writing Mr. Thornton!

@Jax, You beat me to this review, and I need to re-read the first four books to remember much more than characters like: Bert Harker, Nick's HIV+ One True Love in the plague days of AIDS; the Bughouse Slasher; Sugar Pilsbury, the married-for-bucks Alexis Carrington wannabe; Miss Minerva Jones, the no-nonsense, built-like-a-linebacker drag queen; the myriad officers of the Chicago Police Department with their assorted bigotries; Carolyn O'Hara, owner of Carolyn's Crew, the temp agency that Nick contracts with; Paradise Isle disco; and the varied and wonderful crew of hook-ups that Nick encounters through his p.i. business back in the days (and nights) when the worst things you could get from sex were lousy mornings-after and/or were curable by penicillin.

Another point that @Jax made in her review, which I would like to enthusiastically second, concerns the sheer muscularity and spare excellence of Thornton's writing. These are real mysteries written for people who really appreciate the enveloping of every action into advancing the plot(s). There are no waste words here. Like Chandler and Hammett, Thornton's prose is straightforward, spare, and fully engaging. In the past, I have often been guilty of letting an author off the hook for writing good, but maybe not great, novels. Often there are a combination of reasons for this: I may really like the characterization of the MCs; or the setting (the Scottish Isles, for example) is someplace I'm crazy to learn more about; or, perhaps, it's a genre I don't know that much about (Steampunk is my classic I-love-it genre where I'll let other areas slip a bit.) With Boystown, there is absolutely no "slippage" to be found anywhere. Thornton's prose is deft, muscular and fully evocative of a specific time and place. His main characters are warts-and-all likable and true-to-life; and, particular to Thornton, his secondary characters are fully fleshed-out and genuinely fun. This man can really write a story which, I would hope, any reader can enjoy despite perhaps not caring for one of the plotlines, or the time period or whatever. I would venture that there aren't many people who won't find this series to be absolutely first-rate and oh-so-enjoyable.

The first line of this particular novel may live in m/m series iconography as equal to "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful..." and "'I see'...said the vampire thoughtfully..." I didn't catch its true significance, even after the several clues had been given. (I read the first four novels of this series a while ago, and I tend to only remember important things after being hit over the head with a two-by-four.) Imagine how I felt when I was given just the facts.

Boystown is one of the best m/m series going, and I truly hope that there are additional books after this one. It's too good a series to end in such a turbulent period of Nick's life.

Now, about those other four books.

Redundant, but at least putting it in the right place.

Just for my Backlot buddies - Marshall contacted me through AfterElton and asked me to read and review the first Boystown book on Amazon eighteen months ago. That's what hooked me at first.

I was very amused to note that, quite by accident, there's a scene in this present book that actually takes place near the grave of my (non famous) great-great grandparents. Who knew?

For any aficionado of gritty, urban murder mysteries, Thornton's Nick Nowak is an appealing character. He's a gay Sam Spade, a tough guy who's into guys. His unromantic no-bullshit Polish cop roots serve him well in the context of not-quite-glamorous-yet Chicago of the early 1980s. Nick's ultimate appeal is the side most people don't see: the side that hurts and loves and suffers.

For a gay man of my generation, there is a particular ugly frisson of recognition in the personal narrative that unfolds over the course of the series and comes to a kind of conclusion in the present book. The unpleasant dual narratives that have intertwined in the last three volumes are the appearance of a serial killer known as the Bughouse Slasher; and the even more frightening appearance of a new disease that seems to be affecting mostly gay men - including Nowak's lover, Bert Harker. Those of us who survived this era will ache in sympathy with Nick's position.

Thornton's writing is old school: crisp, descriptive, but unornamented. It perfectly represents Nowak's increasingly bleak view of the world, putting the reader in the place of Nowak's increasingly anxious circle of friends. We want to reach out to him, to try to make things better - but in his bitter anger, he just pushes us away.

This book is not the end of Nick Nowak. Marshall is already at work on book 6. Let's hope it's as good as this one - if maybe a little happier.

Jax wrote: "
The opening sentence of Boystown 5: Murder Book packs a real punch. After reading just that one line, I turned off my kindle and put it aside for several hours. When I came back to..."

You know, Jax? I did the very same thing upon hearing the first line (via audiobook). This book is excellent!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Boystown 6: From the Ashes was just released!!

Catch an Exclusive excerpt of Boystown 6: From the Ashes by Marshall Thornton via the Gay Mystery-Thriller-Suspense Fiction Facebook Group;

Thanks for the reminder about book 6 Jon. I had it on my list of release dates but it slipped my mind.

Jax wrote: "Thanks for the reminder about book 6 Jon. I had it on my list of release dates but it slipped my mind."

Welcome, Jax. I kept refreshing the Amazon link last night until it was uploaded (so I could my gift card balance); so looking forward to diving into this one!

Got it. Arrgh. I will never be finished reading--I see new books every day I want to add to my list...but Marshall's BOystown series is a must.

Ulysses wrote: "Got it. Arrgh. I will never be finished reading--I see new books every day I want to add to my list...but Marshall's BOystown series is a must."

Lol, I'm in the same boat as you, Ulysses. There are several authors/series I purchase as soon as released, so my TBR pile is always scary; authors such as Dorien Grey, David Lennon, Greg Herren, Mark Richard Zubro, Marshall Thornton, Scott Sherman, J.P. Bowie, Joseph R. G. DeMarco, Alex Morgan, and Geoffrey Knight to name a few!

See my review of Boystown 6!

Boystown 6
Up from the Ashes

By Marshall Thornton

4.5 stars

I think Marshall Thornton’s writing is getting better. The book opens a year after Book 5 closed, a story tainted with violent death and tragic loss for Nick Nowak. Right away I noticed that Thornton’s familiar “noir� style—terse, descriptive, lean—is richer and spiced with little bits of wry humor and vivid description. Not that I haven’t enjoyed every one of these Nick Nowak detective stories; but something about the language in this one just kept catching my notice and giving me added pleasure in the reading. For example:

“The church itself was the most elaborate with a four-story steeple, topped with a dome and a cross. It was imposing and I had the uncomfortable feeling I was being bullied into believing in God.�

I cite that passage, because in “Up from the Ashes� Nick deals a lot with the Catholic Church. In some ways, it’s just what you’d expect, given the church’s sketchy history of the last thirty years; but in others, it’s a surprisingly compassionate take on one lapsed gay Catholic’s cautious dealings with priests and parochial school. I really admired Thornton’s careful weaving of the story, his development of various key roles in the drama, and the somewhat unexpected solution to the mystery.

Perhaps the most powerful element in the book is its most low-key narrative thread: the gradual thawing of Nick’s hate/hate relationship with Bert Harker’s mother, Eva. The promotion of the book pretends this is a spoiler, but Mrs. Harker shows up early in the book, asking for Nick’s help in solving a mystery that doesn’t appear to be a mystery. Out of this awkward start, a shift begins to take place in tiny increments, and it left me touched and warmed, without any sort of sentimentality. It is one of the many such little pleasures mixed up in this interesting, beautifully penned episode in the Boystown series.

Of course the continuing background theme is the emerging awareness of AIDS, and that inevitably colors the mood in the book. Thornton understands the importance of telling this story, too; but he resists making it the central theme of the book. After all, it wasn’t really a central theme of our lives back in 1984 because, appallingly, most of us still didn’t understand what AIDS was and what it was going to do to us over the next fifteen years. Nowack and others in the book are dealing with it, each in their own way. Without giving anything away, there was a single scene toward the end of the book with his friend Brian that made me heave a sigh of relief. I can’t explain it any more than that without giving away details. But Marshall handled it just right, and I found myself feeling weirdly grateful.

Read this. Read all of them. They’re important parts of the great world of detective fiction, and an even more important contribution to the gay side of that—along with Joseph Hansen, Neil Plakcy, and Greg Herren.

Ulysses wrote: "Boystown 6
Up from the Ashes

By Marshall Thornton

4.5 stars

I think Marshall Thornton’s writing is getting better. The book opens a year after Book 5 closed, a story tainted with violent death a..."

I freakin' love this series!! I've read all six novels and listened to the audiobooks of the first five (the sixth is currently being recorded by the incredible Brad Langer, who has been the voice of Nick Nowak for the entire series). I agree with everything in this review!!

For those who have not yet read my interview with Boystown: Three Nick Nowak Mysteries author, Marshall Thornton, please check it out here;

Review of Boystown 7, Bloodlines

By Marshall Thornton

Five stars


With each succeeding book in the Boystown series, Marshall Thornton’s story of Nick Nowak in the 1980s just gets better.

Thornton’s noir writing style is grounded and sure. He takes us through the now-familiar streets of Chicago as it was 30 years ago, letting us follow Nick’s mind as it moves between the two puzzling jobs he’s been handed to the ongoing grief and guilt he feels over his lover’s death and his killing of a serial killer.

Boystown 7 is really about the emergence of hope in the heart of a new Nick Nowak. We find him at the start couch-surfing in his friend Brian’s apartment, sometimes sleeping with Brian, but also helping him take care of Terry, a precocious and prickly teenager thrown away by his parents for being gay. In the course of the story, Nick realizes that the world is moving on, and that he needs to figure out how to do that himself.

A beautifully handled subtext in the book is the gradually awakening of something in Nick that, if not exactly a sense gay awareness, then a sense of self as a gay man without shame for being a gay man. Various characters who play roles in the story, from socialite Sugar Pilson to Brian’s new, annoying boyfriend Franklin, begin to tweak Nick’s consciousness, slowly making him understand his own place in the world. Nowak has plenty that he thinks he ought to be ashamed of. As the plot progresses, Nick begins to see what the reader has known all along: that he is, more than he knows, a good and kind and generous man.

As his relationships with old friends shift, his relationship with Harker’s mother also continues to evolve. At Easter dinner she hands him a beer, and he wonders to himself: “I’d done something right and Mrs. Harker was thanking me.�

Tied to his evolving relationship with Harker’s mother is another beautifully nuanced plot detail: Mrs. Harker forces Nick to get rid of the neon-green Chevy Nova that mob boss Jimmy English gave him, and gives him the peach-colored Lincoln Versailles that his late lover Harker owned. “The Versailles was an ugly car, and it drove like a waterbed.� The car smells of Harker’s cologne and cigarettes, and while it upsets him, it is also a symbol of Mrs. Harker’s thawing.


AIDS and sex also have their roles to play; indeed the whole series has been cast against the backdrop of the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s and its devastating consequences. I lived through this myself, being about Nick Nowak’s age, and so did the author. Nick’s plight echoes uncomfortably that of every one of us who survived.

Interestingly, while Nick talks quite a bit in the book about the sex he used to have, there are only two incidents of sex in this book. Each serves a distinct and important purpose in Nick’s evolution. They’re too important to spoil by describing here.

“What did Oscar Wilde say about sex? ‘Everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power.’�

Boystown 7: Bloodlines left me emotionally sated and teary-eyed. Something big happened in this book, and it had nothing to do with murder. What ultimately happened is that I came to care deeply about Nick and his future. I so look forward to book 8 in the series, which is underway.

Ulysses wrote: "Review of Boystown 7, Bloodlines

By Marshall Thornton

Five stars


With each succeeding book in the Boystown series, Marshall Thornton’s story of Nick Nowak in the 1980s just gets better.

Thornt..."

Excellent review, Ulysses! I shared it on my Gay Mystery-Thriller-Suspense Fiction facebook group. I'm looking forward to this one!

Thanks--I appreciate getting the exposure, too!