Third Man Out

Stevenson, Richard. "Third Man Out". The Haworth Pres, 2006. One More Time Amos Lassen and Literary Pride Our gay detective, Donald Strachey, is back ahead in another thrilling detective story by Richard Stevenson," Third Man Out". Again we are kept guessing through a plot full of twists and turns as Stevenson takes a "whodunit" and breathes new life into an old formula by providing social commentary with timely action and lots of wit. "Third Man Out" takes a look at the radical group, "Queer Nation". An attempt is made on the life of John Rutka, a gay activist and Rutka asks Strachey to give him protection. He does not understand why anyone would want to kill him but it seems that his past actions have earned him a great many enemies. Rutka outed closeted gay homophobes who would like to see him dead. Strachey refused to be his protector and Rutka turned up dead, apparently the cause of murder was retribution for his outings. Strachey felt guilty after the man's death and felt obliged to investigate the death. And we are off on another chase through the gay community to find out who was responsible for Rutka's death. Of the three Donald Strachey novels I have read thus far, I find "Third Man Out" to be the most powerful and suspenseful. The subtlety of the humor and of the language provides a wonderful read. It is a carefully plotted thriller that like the other Strachey novels keeps you guessing until the last page. The book goes way beyond the edges of the genre of mystery and confronts those issues important to today's gay community. The questions that Strachey deals with are ethical and real and only with the suspense of the novel is a lot of good humor. The book is a winner on all fronts and if you are really into reading a good mystery story here is one you do not want to miss. The Strachey novels are being filmed for television and will be shown on and produced by Here TV? "Third Man Out" was the first to be filmed and it is spectacular. "Shock to the System" has also been made into a wonderful film.

I've often looked for a gay murder mystery who done it. Finally I found something worth reading. It's not a dumbed down novel at all. It's full of plots twists and turns with characters who you really get to know. It's nice to see characters interacting with one another who are gay even if they do go for blackmale and the shady side of life sometime...okay most of the time. Very few women mentioned in the book, and I give it four stars because I was able to figure out who did it close to the end of the book and because the ending left me a bit speechless and upset.

In THIRD MAN OUT, the fourth Donald Strachey caper, Stevenson deals with the touchy issue of the forced 'outing' of gays (and their little dogs too) by other gays. Reluctantly, P.I. Strachey agrees to act as body guard to Queer Nation activist John Rutka, who has inspired mucho death threats following a conscienceless campaign of outings. Strachey gets disgusted, quits, and somebody burns Rutka to a crisp.As usual Stevenson agilely juggles a variety of themes: hypocrisy within the Catholic church, euthanasia, the AIDS crisis, the right to privacy of public figures. These are topics addressed by many gay mystery writers with varying degrees of insight and sensitivity. Stevenson, as ever, manages to be funny and rational at the same time.The only thing that keeps this entry in the Strachey sweepstakes from being an across the board winner, is my own personal predilection for more pages devoted to the Strachey-Callahan partnership. Don and Timmy remain (for me) the most fascinating couple in gay mysterydom (second only to the enigma of Dave Brandstetter and his long-dead Rod Fleming). They represent (as Strachey himself once facetiously put it) "two healthy, relaxed gay men more or less at peace with themselves and each other, secure in their loving relationship and in the knowledge that its evident riches were a goal nearly all gay men could aspire to and achieve." Anything resulting in unbroken paragraphs of Don and Timmy rates a 10 out of me.