Queer Street (Jake Rossiter and Miss Jenkins Mystery) - Hardcover

On the night of his birthday, Seattle private detective Jake Rossiter gets a call from Donny (proprietor of the not-so-secret Garden of Allah, the city's most exclusive gay nightclub) about the murder of Trixie, one of the club's female impersonators. Never one to refuse a rich client, Jake figures he'll take a quick gander before his birthday dinner with his junior partner Miss Jenkins. But almost before Jake sets foot in the door of the taboo club, the cops raid the joint and haul the whole place into the clink.

Now faced with a night in jail, a disappearing client, conflicting alibis, and more suspects than you can shake a feathered boa at, Jake sets out to dig up the dirt behind Trixie's murder. As the leads start to unravel, the case takes Jake from the opulent hallways of high society moguls to the esteemed chambers of judicial bigwigs and right on down to the back rooms of unctuous crime bosses. And at each stop there's someone new throwing cash Jake's way to take care of their troubles.

Already stretched pretty thin, Jake's caught off guard by the increased attentions of Miss Jenkins--who has more on her mind than detecting--and Heine Heinselman, Jake's best friend and trusted sidekick, who's gone head over heels over a dame--a dame he's supposed to be gathering evidence against.

With all these distractions, it's all our man Jake can do to dodge the punches and keep from getting knocked right to queer street.

A Seattle native, Curt Colbert is a history buff and Vietnam veteran who lives with his wife, Stephanie, and bob-tailed cat Al. He enjoys boxing and good cigar. His special area of interest is the history of police corruption. When it comes to period, hard-boiled crime fiction, Curt firmly believes in telling it like it really was: "Forget today's PC. Sugar-coating anything amounts to nothing more than revisionist history."

The Private Eye Writers of America, sponsors of the Shamus Award, nominated Curt's first book, Rat City, as the Best First P.I. Novel of 2001. Curt is currently finishing Nowhere Town, the fourth book in the Jake Rossiter & Miss Jenkins mystery series.