Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars**
I love this series with my whole heart. Andy Mills is a phenomenal main character and I adore the classic film noir vibes just rolling off these pages.
The mystery, relationships and setting are all equally fantastic and compelling. I need more!
If you’re unaware, Rough Pages is the 3rd-installment to Lev A.C. Rosen’s Evander Mills series. These are Historical Mysteries set in early-1950s San Francisco and follow a diverse cast of characters.
This story kicks off with Andy being drawn back to Lavender House for a missing person case involving Pat, the butler. Pat has been volunteering his time working at a book store specializing in a subscription service for Queer books.
The proprietor of that bookstore, Henry, has mysteriously gone missing, along with his address book containing the list of all their subscribers. Trust that in the early-1950s, this is a very valuable list. If it falls into the wrong hands, a lot of people would be in danger.
Andy discovers the book shop also had begun publishing Queer books, and it appears someone didn’t want them to release their latest project.
Evidence leads Andy to believe there’s a mafia connection and that they may have purposely held onto the subscriber list for future blackmail purposes.
It’s a race against time as Andy tries to put the pieces of this dangerous puzzle together before his whole world comes crashing down around him.
The mystery, again, was great and I have become so incredibly attached to this cast of characters. It’s not just Andy, but also the found family he has surrounded himself with since his termination from the police department.
I loved how at the start of this, he returned to Lavender House, which he didn’t do in the second book. So, that was fun to revisit that special place and I like how Rosen incorporated those characters again.
The film noir, classic detective fiction, vibes are so strong in this series. I urge anyone who has a soft spot for those classics to pick this series up. Rosen has nailed that style and when I am reading one of these mysteries, I can see it all playing out in my head like my movie. I love it.
Andy went through so much in this one. He has a budding relationship and he did have to confront a bit of his past again, this time in the form of his former employer.
There were high stakes, tense moments, as well as discussions about books and sharing of stories. I appreciated how a lot of the plot revolved around this idea of subversive books. That was an interesting avenue of exploration.
This series doesn’t get enough hype, IMO, so just know, it comes with my highest recommendation. I haven’t come across a lot of Queer Historical Mysteries, but I have a feeling, even if I had, this series would still be the tops.
In addition to the overall series recommendation, I also highly recommend the audiobooks, if that’s an option for you. They’re all narrated by Vikas Adam, whose narration style lends itself so well to the film noir feel of these stories. Vikas is Andy to me.
Thank you to the publisher, Forge Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me copies to read and review. I am not sure what the future holds for this series, but I certainly hope we get a lot more cases to solve with Andy and friends!!