Francis "Frank" Morley
Created by Lou Rand (pseud. of Lou Rand Hogan)

FRANK MORLEY, the "fierece but fey" dick of the 1961 Saber original, The Gay Detective, was certainly a little light in the gumshoes. Fortunately, he had his best boy, big, strong ex-marine Tiger, to help him out a jam now and then. The jam he's in this go around is babysitting a "nymphomaniac on the male."

Certainly one of the first gay detectives (the title's a tip-off), the book was set in the Beat-era, and spotlighted the "gay mecca-in-the-making" that was San Francisco at the time. By most accounts, the plot's pretty solid, and there's actually a fair bit of humour, though other critics just peg it as a campo classic.

The cover art from the original shows two suited gentlemen, presumably Francis and Tiger, trying to lead a comatose, scantily clad blond down a flight of stairs. The front blurb reads: "Francis and Tiger found out what they needed to know. The Trick now was to get nude Vivian out of the bathhouse and to safety."

The back cover features a quote from the Bible, Romans 14:14: "I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean," and sums up the action as follows:

"Francis Morely is a fierce but fey private eye who uses insider insights to crack a series of gay murders that have baffled Bay City police. Tiger Olsen is a straight, downwardly-mobile former football payer who takes a job as Morely's sidekick. Seems there's a camera behind a trick mirror in a notorious bathhouse run by the sinister Joe Cannelli, and a few members of high society who think they're too powerful to be blackmailed. Will Morley and Olsen have to go under-cover as a gay couple and spend a night in the baths to expose the nefarious scheme? Not if the lovely and mysterious Vivian Holden as anything to say about it! Lou Rand."

The book proved relatively successful, and was released four years later as Rough Trade ("The strangest, most unconventional relationship two men ever shared!"), and over the next thirty years or so, became something of a camp classic, finally being re-released in 2003, under its original title, with a new introduction by Susan Stryker and Martin Meeker, and of course, a new cover.

Lou Rand was the pen-name of Lou Hogan, a San Francisco chef, Gourmet Magazine columnist and pulp fiction writer.

UNDER OATH

• "A fantastically camp romp."
  (Time Out London)
  .
• "It's so flaming you could roast marshmallows over it."
  (Ann Bannon, author of Beebo Brinker)
  

NOVELS

• The Gay Detective (1961; AKA Rough Trade)..Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• What Were Once Vices...
  Gay and Lesbian Eyes
  
  
• Down These Mean Streets a Gay Man Must Also Go
  An essay by Drewey Wayne Gunn.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.