Death of the Gay Deceiver

About the Book

An elegantly dressed corpse in the outside stairwell of a Midtown Manhattan apartment house is not what she appears to be. She is a he - a female impersonator at Le Paree. Unmasking the murderer from among the "unusual" suspects - the Le Paree troupe; Elberta English, the voyeuristic hostess of a dinner party where "illusionist" Billie Love had his farewell performance; and her dinner guests, most of whom are hiding secrets - becomes the obsession of NYPD detectives Maggie O'Dowd and herb Klein. Suspecting procurement and blackmail, they must discover the vulnerabilities of the large cast of characters: MaggieÕs deteriorating relationship with her mother and inability to commit to her detective boyfriend Vince Garza; and herb's unrequited love for Maggie. Complicating the unraveling of who killed Billie love are a stone-walling witness, the sudden disappearance of a tenant, the murder of a private investigator with connections to the investigations, a false confession, the discovery of a blackmailer blackmailing a blackmailer, and homophobic cops in the detective's precinct. Maggie's attempt to flush out Billie's killer with misinformation in the press backfires and precipitates a deadly encounter between Maggie and a murderer.

About the Author

Beverly Littlejohn, an expatriate Texan who now lives in Arizona, makes her novel debut with Death of the gay Deceiver but she has received honors in the crime/mystery genre with such short stories as "Prognosis: Terminal", winner of the Glendale, AZ Public Library's first Mystery Short Story contest, and "The Good Neighbor", recipient of a Writer's Digest honorable mention. She also has scripted two screenplays in the genre. She is a member of the Sun Cities Authors Association.