When you first notice it, something seems a bit unusual. Then it occurs to you that most, if not all, of the pools you've ever seen before were painted blue or white. The Captain's House pool is black. Not painted black. But constructed of black marble and black tile. The marble has streaks of white that look like lightning bolts in a black sky. There is a sexiness to this pool; a personality. It looks and feels like a warm, wet blanket, surrounding and protecting you like a dark, quiet womb. There's a dead body at the bottom of a pool in the backyard of a guest house in Key West. Who is he? And what caused his untimely demise? Maybe it's suicide. Or an accident. But more likely - murder! And who's responsible? One of the guests, the people who run the guest house or one of those mysterious women in town? A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist in 1991, this new edition includes a foreword by renowned LGBTQ publicist and friend of Stan Leventhal, Michele Karlsberg. "The pace is brisk: the plot keeps twisting, as no one is at all who they seem." - Keith John Glaeske, Out In Print "Stan was a literary activist who always gave to, built and endorsed literature and writers. On this Sunday morning, all these years later, I can still see Stan in his apartment window on Christopher Street, next door to the Stonewall Inn, overlooking Sheridan Square as he typed away." - Michele Karlsberg "Stan Leventhal was wonderful company: warm, honest, curious, engaging, and human. [His writing] is the next best thing to hanging out with him." - Christopher Bram

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 8 -Successful professor Nick Hoffman finds his secure, happy, college-town life changed forever after a nightmarish encounter with police. The idea that someone can accuse you of a crime, and a SWAT team shows up at your door and drags you away? But even when that horrible night is over, tension and paranoia build in ways that are far too plausible. Someone is clearly out to destroy him. Nick and his partner Stefan Borowski face an escalating series of threats that lead to a brutal and stunning confrontation. A novel of suspense, Assault with a Deadly Lie probes the disturbing psychological impact of slander, harassment, stalking, police brutality, and the loss of personal safety within the academic world. In this eighth novel in the series, Lev Raphael, Lambda Award winner, takes us on an especially topical voyage into politics and college freedoms. Included in this new edition, a foreword by Carole B. Shmurak (Susan Lombardi mysteries) as well as a new introduction by the author. "A riveting great read for mystery/suspense fans, Lev Raphael once again documents his impressive gifts, holding the reader's rapt attention from beginning to end with unexpected plot twists and surprise twists." - Midwest Book Review "In Assault with a Deadly Lie, the ivory tower topples under a barrage of guns and violence. Nick Hoffman and his partner find that literature and an idyllic domestic life are no match for a deranged character's revenge conspiracy." - Lynn C. Miller "A splendidly written story of innocence, intrigue, and invisible enemies, Assault with a Deadly Lie waltzes beautifully between poignancy and terror. But better still is the question that will haunt readers long after the book is put down: Could this happen to me?" - P.J. Parrish

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 7 -Fitness = Death when Nick Hoffman heads back to the gym right after a vacation, finding himself caught in a Desperate Housewives-type mystery. Michigan Muscle is a state-of-the-art health club adjacent to the State University of Michigan. Boasting luxurious facilities, the latest equipment, and topnotch personal trainers, it's a palatial complex for fitness. But every palace has its intrigue, and when Nick stumbles across a dead trainer, he's drawn into a web of passion and privilege unlike anything he's ever experienced before. The prime suspect because he's the one who discovered the body, Nick has to work this mystery out to its bitter end. In this seventh novel in the series, Lev Raphael, Lambda Award winner, takes us on another voyage with one of the mystery world's funniest - and best-read - amateur sleuths. Included in this new edition, a foreword by R E Bradshaw (Rainey Bell Thriller series). "Raphael's latest smoothly delivers a satisfying mystery while providing insight into the middle-aging of America, gay marriage, the excitement of sleuthing as a means of exercising control over our lives, the 'Orwellian' Patriot Act, and more." - Booklist "Hot Rocks is a comic mystery of bad manners, written with the suspenseful touch of Alfred Hitchcock bred to the epigrammatic wit of Oscar Wilde. The hero of the tale, assistant professor Nick Hoffman, is among the most lovably erudite characters in all of mystery fiction." - Robert Eversz, Zero to the Bone "If you like your mysteries smart, witty, and steaming with suspense, you won't find a better read than Lev Raphael's Hot Rocks. The new spa in town is proving hazardous to Nick's health, and it's great to be back at his side while he sleuths in the sauna. Lev's turned up the heat in one of my favorite series in crime fiction." - Linda Fairstein, Bad Blood

In 2000, Theater Communications Group published Death & Taxes which contained the following one-acts: REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION, G DAVID SCHINE IN HELL, NOTES ON AKIBA, TERMINATING and EAST COAST ODE TO HWARD JARVIS. In 2009 the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, under the title Tiny Kushner, produced FLIP FLOP FLY, TERMINATING, EAST COAST ODE TO HOWARD JARVIS, DR ARNOLD A HUTSCHNECKER IN PARADISE, and ONLY WE WHO GUARD THE MYSTERY SHALL BE UNHAPPY. This book, for the first time, collects all these one-acts in one place.