File Under Dead: A Tom & Scott Mystery

I love Zubro's writing style: fierce, real, absorbing. His books are refreshing and full of life. Does anyone know how to get in conact with him?

In this landmark 10TH mystery in the "Tom & Scott Mystery" series, we join high school teacher Tom Mason, as he arrives early one Saturday morning to do some volunteer work at the local gay/lesbian teen counseling center. He decides to catch up on some filing in the office he shares, and opens a file cabinet drawer, finding a severed head. Being no stranger to having the misfortune to stumble upon a murder, Tom tries to work with the police to find the killer. The problem is that the victim was the unusually unpleasant and nasty manager of the center, and there is no shortage of people who were glad to see the end of the man referred to - by employees and volunteers alike - as "Snarly Bitch". Various pieces of circumstantial evidence seem to point to just about everyone, including Tom himself. The number one suspect seems to be Lee Weaver, a young man working as a counselor who Tom first met as a gay teen who came to him for help while in school. Tom believes Lee is innocent, but evidence surfaces that suggests he may not have told him (or the police) the entire truth about his activities the night of the murder. As usual, this Zubro mystery has a "message within the story" and this time it is a sobering commentary about the counterproductive politics and internal machinations of the gay teen counseling center and other factions within the gay community. Tom was aware of the staff and voluntter strife, and some grandstanding and feather-ruffling going on with its Board of Directors, but talking with most of the kids who go to the counseling center makes him aware of what huge impact this has had on them over the years. Tom's baseball-player partner, Scott, is mostly absent (on the road with his team) during this installment in the series, which makes it different from most. Like the others, it is well-written and holds the reader's attention throughout. Perhaps partially because I previously volunteered for an organization similar to the one featured in the story, I was especially riveted to this story, which had an ending that took me completely by surprise.

One of the best things about summer is the anticipation of another of Mark Richard Zubro's fine novels of realistic gay living in Chicago, my favorite city on the planet---for bunches of reasons. In fact, I'm proud to have collected first editions of all of his works. Zubro writes a double series of works, both different and satisfying: one is based on the team of Tom Mason (high school English teacher and all-around solid good-guy--so good, in fact, that the Chicago PD basically leaves him alone in his investigations) and his lover, the out-and-proud two-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, Scott Carpenter; the other series is strictly blue-collar and completely absorbing, featuring Chicago Police Detective Paul Turner (a gay father of two sons) and his lover, extremely butch automechanic Ben. Zubro's strengths as a writer include believable characters, a strong sense of

Although he likes being a high school teacher and interacting with the students as a gay man Tom Mason feels the need to work with gay teens, who need an adult's help to guide them through their various trials and crises. He volunteers at the Oscar Wilde Gay Youth services advising the teens who are suicidal, afraid to come out, and how to deal with their parents. There's a lot of backbiting and infighting between the staff and the head of the clinic Charlie Fitch, the executive director. Tom tries to stay away from the politics of the situation but when he opens his file cabinet and finds Charlie's severed head, he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation. Eventually, the police arrest counselor Lee Weaver because his fingerprints are on the murder weapon (an axe) and had a motive as Charlie fired him the night of the murder. Tom counseled Lee when he was teen and he does not believe Lee is the killer. He intends to prove it since he has access to the people involved but before he can find Charlie's killer he finds two more murder victims. Mark Richard Zubro has written an exciting amateur sleuth novel but FILE UNDER DEAD is so much more than that. It is a story about teens who do not know how to go against the norm in turns of their sexuality and the counselors who talk the more troubled ones out of considering suicide, and help them accept the consequences if their parents find out and can't cope with the truth. This fine mystery has heart giving readers an insider's view of the problems facing gay teens. Harriet Klausner