Mystery/Detective/LGBT/Quozy
Setting: Primarily Los Angeles/Anaheim CA; Louisville KY; New York NY
Publisher: Butler Books (October 15, 2024)
Paperback: 332 pages
ISBN 978-1-964530-02-4
There’s only one Jackson Stradivarius.
Welcome to the arcane world of handcrafted, professional violins. Master luthier Greg Zhu and his husband, Presbyterian minister Dan Randolph, travel to Los Angeles, where Greg’s newest design is competing for recognition from the Violin Society of America. Only a handful of participants know that the Jackson is at the conference, but the owner offers Greg the rare opportunity to examine it—and Greg is the last person in the room before the violin disappears. Greg and Dan team up with the authorities to clear Greg’s name, catch the thief, and recover the priceless violin before it is lost to the arts and antiquities black market.
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Author Guest Post
When I was in the process of leaving the architectural profession to enter seminary and eventually ordained ministry, I told a friend about it and said that it probably sounded like an odd shift. “Not really,” he replied. “You’re just moving from one profession where no one listens to you, to another one.” It wasn’t entirely accurate on either side of the equation, there was certainly enough truth to it that his comment stuck with me.
That was 17 years ago, and I can look back on the experience
and say that it has been, and continues to be, an amazing ride.
At the same time that I was preparing for the ministry, I began to come to terms with my own sexuality. After years of denial and repression, I finally admitted to myself that I was gay and began coming out to a handful of people even before graduating from seminary. I finally fully came out at the same time that I was seeking my first ordained call following graduation. As you might suspect, coming out as a gay minister is not really a career-enhancing situation, even after my denomination officially permitted LGBTQ+ ordained leaders. Considering how difficult it would be to find a “first call” as a gay man, even in a relatively progressive denomination, one ministerial colleague suggested “Couldn’t you just stay in the closet for a few years, build up some experience and reputation, and then come out? Because you’re about the straightest gay guy I’ve ever met.” I realized his misguided comment was meant as a compliment, but I told him that that misunderstanding about what gay men were like – or that we fit some monolithic stereotype at all – was precisely why I *had* to come out.
Despite the numerous difficulties and frustrations that
coming out caused, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve provided pastoral care to
individuals great and small, in congregations large and small. I’ve also served
as a hospital chaplain in a Level 1 Trauma Center for a time. Throughout this
journey, my own personal faith has evolved, deepened, and strengthened. I hope
that along the way, I’ve had a similar positive effect on the people whose
lives I’ve touched, and whose lives have touched my own.
That hope is at least half question. Retirement from this
second career is still measured in years away, but not a lot of them, and as I
look back on it all there are times when I wonder if all the struggles I’ve
endured in this – and there have been many - have been worth it. Have I really
made a difference in the world, or at least in the lives of individuals – my
children, my husband, parishioners, friends?
That exercise of introspection has been a major point of
origin for writing my debut book, Plausible Deception (https://www.butlerbooks.com/plausible-deception.html
) . On one level, the plot of this mystery focuses on the professional world of
my husband, George Yu, an internationally respected violin maker, who is the
real-life inspiration for the character of Greg Zhu. The two main characters in
the book are only slightly fictionalized versions of the two of us, and
together they become involved in the mystery surrounding the theft of the
world-renowned Jackson Stradivarius violin. Weaving through that plot, though, the
story examines very serious issues including racism, xenophobia, homophobia,
and sexism, among other things, all in a manner integral to the story.
Beneath all of that, though, are
those personal thoughts of mine regarding the meaning and significance of my own
actual life. In this book, readers will meet the Rev. Dan Randolph, the
fictionalized version of me, and learn a bit about his gradual morphing from
very conservative to very progressive theologian and pastor, and his own
internal questioning about the significance of his own life. I hope that in
subsequent books, readers will follow that journey along with Dan – and me – as
that question continues to play out in various mysteries.
At the same time, this book, as with subsequent books that
will form a series, will examine the relationship of the two main characters: a
compassionate but blunt, sometimes sarcastic architect/minister with a dry sense of humor and a colorful vocabulary;
and his husband, a brilliant Asian-Canadian engineer/violin maker who often
comes at the world in very different ways than his husband. One of them came
out in their 30s; the other had been married previously and raised a family
before coming out in their mid-50s, and those differences add to the interplay
– sometimes tenuous – between the two men. The book also teases out the
relationship between Dan and his two adult children, with whom he has good
relationships, but still are relationships with baggage.
I hope that readers will find the plot of the book
interesting, informative, and engaging, while at the same time a warm and fun
look into the lives of these two men and their life together.
About Dwain Lee
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Hi, thanks for featuring an author's guest post about my new book, Plausible Deception. I hope that your readers enjoy it, and that they'll be intrigued and check out the book!
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