Though I have been posting poetry each Tuesday, I chose to do so on Friday this week for a special reason. Instead of a wintery poem today, I have decided to post a book review.
Best friends and sometimes lovers Edward “Mitch” Mitchell and Harry “Boy” Morgan have been in terrible jams before — their adventures of murder, mystery, and unstoppable sex have made The Back Passage
If you are not familiar with the horny detective Edward “Mitch” Mitchell, then I suggest beginning with The Back Passage and The Secret Tunnel before reading A Sticky End. However, here are a few quotes from the book that should tantalize you enough to want to read these books by James Lear.
Mitch Mitchel on his detecting method:
Holmes has his fiddle, Poirot his liqueurs—I have cock. We all have our methods.
His libido:
I had to stop groping in the dark. He who gropes in the dark tends to find things he wasn’t looking for—and, looking back over the last 36 hours, I’d found more cocks, asses, and mouths than was altogether plausible. The one thing most likely to distract me from a case is, of course, sex—and sex seemed to rear its head at every corner. Was this a coincidence? It often seems to me, when I reflect on my experiences, that whenever I am close in proximity to crime, to murder, sexual opportunities arise with far greater frequency. Why is this? Is my libido suddenly exaggerated by the nearness of death? Is it, as the Freudians would have us believe, evidence of the close relationship between Eros and Thanatos? Or is it simply that criminals know exactly how to keep me occupied by throwing sexually attractive men in my way whenever I get too close for comfort? Whatever, the reason, my three encounters with suspicious death have coincided with peaks in sexual activity. I will leave further analysis to the experts.
On bottoming:
My friends and regular readers will know that, on the whole, I tend to take the active role in these encounters—partly, I suppose, through personal preference, but also because most men, in my experience, are so eager to take what they’re not used to being given that I have very little choice in the matter. Nature has equipped me for the job—I’ve got plenty to go around, and enough stamina to keep up with demand, even when, in the last 24 hours, men were lining up with their asses open. But there comes a time in every man’s life when he wants nothing more than to lie on his back with his legs in the air and take an enormous hard prick up his rectum, and that time had come for me.
Lear’s erotic fiction is a joy to read, whether it is the Mitch Mitchell Mysteries, or any of his other novels. One thing to remember though, unless you have a Kindle or other e-reader, these are probably books that you would not want to take out in public to read (at least in most places), because nearly every one of Lear’s novels has a naked man on the cover. But nobody does a book cover like James Lear.
JAMES LEAR is the nom de plume of prolific and acclaimed novelist, Rupert Smith. He lives in London and is the 2008 Winner of Erotic Awards “Best Writer”.
, historian B. R. Burg investigates the social and sexual world of these sea rovers, a tightly bound brotherhood of men engaged in almost constant warfare. What, he asks, did these men, often on the high seas for years at a time, do for sexual fulfillment? Buccaneer sexuality differed widely from that of other all- male institutions such as prisons, for it existed not within a regimented structure of rule, regulations, and oppressive supervision, but instead operated in a society in which widespread toleration of homosexuality was the norm and conditions encouraged its practice.
” exhibit, two years in the making, conveys the stories of the gay and bisexual men and women who serve in the U.S. military. And because his subjects are forced to keep their sexual orientations under wraps in order to serve, Shen’s photos are portraits without faces. 
aloud. The Tennessee Williams play inspired the residents to fondly name the house “Belle Reve” in honor of Blanche DuBois’ Mississippi plantation. 
, this “motley crew of outcasts” began Southern Decadence as a going away party for a friend named Michael Evers, and to shut up a new “Belle Reve” tenant (from New York) who kept complaining about the New Orleans heat. As a riff on the “Belle Reve” theme, the group named the event a “Southern Decadence Party: Come As Your Favorite Southern Decadent,” requiring all participants to dress in costume as their favorite “decadent Southern” character. According to Spears, “The party began late that Sunday afternoon, with the expectation that the next day (Labor Day) would allow for recovery. Forty or fifty people drank, smoked, and carried on near the big fig tree … even though Maureen (the New Yorker) still complained about the heat.” 
Described by one reporter as “a happening of haberdashery fit for an LSD Alice in Wonderland,” Southern Decadence 2010 will be as outrageous as ever and live up to its reputation as New Orleans’ largest gay street fair. It all begins in earnest six weeks before Labor Day. However, the real party starts on the Wednesday before Labor Day, and the events are non-stop. It picks up steam daily as it nears Sunday’s big street parade, which rivals New Orleans’ gay Mardi Gras in scope, with the party lasting well into the day on Monday.
(1928) and 
Known also by the names Black Renaissance or New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance represented a cultural movement among African Americans roughly between the end of World War I (1918) and the beginning of the Great Depression (1929). The names given to this movement reveal its essential features. Certainly the words “black” and “Negro” mean that this movement centered on African Americans, and the term “renaissance” indicates that something new was born or, more accurately, that a cultural spirit was reawakened in African American cultural life. Although most historians remember the Harlem Renaissance as a literary movement, in fact, African Americans during the 1920s also made great strides in musical and visual arts, as well as science. Finally, the focus on Harlem—an old Dutch-built neighborhood of New York City—indicates that this “renaissance” was something of an urban phenomenon. In fact, the exciting developments in African American cultural life of the 1920s were not limited to Harlem, but also had roots in other urban communities where black Americans migrated in great numbers: East St. Louis, Illinois; Chicago’s south side; and Washington, D.C. The Harlem Renaissance included several important gay and lesbian writers. 
, a book about a gay bullfighter who was deeply closeted during the reign of Generalissimo Francisco 
, the ground-breaking novel about a gay athlete, created another gay sports figure in 
by C. A. Tripp.
tells the story of the talented eunuch slave Taita, his life in Egypt, the flight of Taita along with the Eygptian populace from the Hyksos invasion, and their eventual return. The novel can be grouped together with Wilbur Smith’s other books on Ancient Egypt. It was first published in 1994. This historical novel centers around the little-known facts behind the Hyksos invasion of Egypt, circa 1780 B.C. Containing all the standard elements of great adventure–intrigue, romance, greed, cruelty and furious action–the yarn is spun by the clever eunuch Taita, who reports on events with an irony akin to a 20th-century sensibility. Taita is the slave of Egypt’s scheming Grand Vizier Lord Intef, whose daughter Lostris is in love with Tanus, a young army officer whose father’s demise was brought about by Intef’s greed. Knowing of his daughter’s love, Intef devises a plan for her to become the bride of Pharaoh Mamose. These maneuvers set the stage for the story of two warring Nile kingdoms, the arrival of the Hyksos and the ultimate exodus of the Egyptian court, now ruled by Queen Lostris. Taita is a curious creation. He is clever and wise, but we don’t know how he became so learned or what his country of origin is. The brilliant slave invented a system for calculating the rise and ebb of the Nile, is extremely knowledgeable in the ways of healing, improves upon the wheel and trains horses (both of which were brought to Egypt by the invading Hyksos). He is also clever enough to manipulate the Pharaoh into believing that he is the father of Prince Regent Memnon, the offspring of a forbidden tryst between Lostris and Tanus. Somehow, this doesn’t ring true. 
, first published in 1995, is the second of the ‘Egyptian’ series of novels by Smith and follows the exploits of the adventurer Nicholas Quenton-Harper and Dr. Royan Al Simma. The tomb of Tanus which is the focus of the book refers to another novel by the author, River God. It is set in modern times. A search for the 4000-year-old tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh along the Nile’s headwaters in Ethiopia is the focus of this intoxicating sequel to River God. A heady mix of exotic adventure, romance and Egyptology, it pairs blueblood, devil-may-care Sir Nicholas Quenton-Harper, who recently has lost his wife and children in a tragic accident, and half-English, half-Egyptian archeologist Royan Al-Sima, herself recently bereaved, in a desperate race to unearth Pharaoh Mamose’s fabulous treasures. Their rival in this quest is Gotthold von Schiller, an old, crazed, murderous German collector of antiquities whose mistress, a porno actress, dresses up as an ancient Egyptian queen to titillate him. The major clue is the eponymous seventh scroll, key to the tomb’s location, written by ancient Egyptian scribe and eunuch Taita, who figured prominently in River God. As the novel opens, thugs hired by von Schiller steal the scroll, and thereafter the rival archeologist teams play a cat-and-mouse game with Taita across the millennia, avoiding lethal traps and deciphering red herrings, which will fool the reader too. The colorful cast includes alcoholic ex-KGB operative Boris Brusilov and ruthless Texan Jake Helm, von Schiller’s slavish sidekick. Fans of intricate adventure and Egyptian lore will be captivated by Smith’s capacious saga, which should serve to increase his audience in the States. This prolific and popular British writer-with 24 previous novels, he is a bestseller in England and elsewhere, to the tune of 65 million copies-is a master of the genre.
, first published in 2001, is the third installment of this series of novels by Smith set to ancient Egypt and follows the fate of the Egyptian Kingdom through the eyes of Taita, the multi-talented and highly skilled eunuch slave of the previous two novels. Lengthy but seamlessly composed tracks a power struggle in ancient Egypt between false pharaohs and a true royal heir, evoking the cruel glories and terrible torments of the era. The kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt have been at war for 60 years. Upper Egypt is ruled by Tamose, Lower Egypt by Apepi, king of the Hyksos. Treachery and assassination eliminate both rulers, allowing two false pharaohs to unite in an orgy of tyranny and oppression. Tamose’s son, Prince Nefer, is his father’s rightful heir, but the false pharaoh, Lord Naja, denies Nefer’s birthright and plots to kill the young prince. Aided by the royal sorcerer, a warlock named Taita, Nefer escapes Naja’s plots. Nefer and Taita outwit assassins, evil magicians, pursuing armies and even the treachery of Nefer’s own sister, as they raise their own army in the lost desert city of Gallala. Taita’s magic spells and occult powers protect, teach and guide Nefer on his tortuous path to regain the throne and save the woman he loves, Princess Mintaka, daughter of slain King Apepi. However, as Nefer’s strength grows, so does that of his enemies, and it will take all of Nefer’s courage and Taita’s mystical powers to prevail when the chariot armies of evil sweep across the desert wasteland to the gates of Gallala. This is a very bloody and violent yarn, set in an age when merciless combat, torture, rape and sacrifice were common. Though timorous readers may wish to steer clear, those willing to brave the blood and gore will be carried away by the sweep and pace of Smith’s tale.
, first published in 2007, is the fourth and last of the Egyptian novels. If you read the first three novels in Smith’s ancient Egyptian series and enjoyed them as much as I did, you will welcome the fourth book in the saga, which picks up where Warlock (2001) left off. The powerful magus Taita and his loyal ally, Col. Meren Cambyses, have returned to Egypt after a journey of many years only to find the country beset by a series of plagues that include giant flesh-eating toads and river water turned to blood. Pharaoh Nefer Seti asks the pair to find—and eliminate—the source of his country’s torment, a mission that sends Taita and Meren on a perilous quest in which they must contend with fierce creatures both natural and supernatural. Once again Smith deftly blends history, fantasy and mythology, but newcomers should be prepared for grisly deaths and mutilations.
Joe
The Closet Professor 