Authors: Josh Lanyon
I went home to work. But after a few minutes I rose and went to the bookshelves, thumbing through my father’s astronomy books. I remembered him pointing out the constellations to me on clear midsummer nights; hand on my shoulder, facing me toward the stars.
“Did you know the full moon of each month has its own name?”
“What’s the July moon called?”
“July’s moon is the thunder moon.”
He had all the answers, my father. He knew things no one else knew, and his deep voice resonated in my subconscious as the voice of supreme masculine authority. I had never really known him. Never understood him, but how I had admired him. His strength, his confidence, his utter self-sufficiency.
And how I had loved him.
A square of butcher’s paper fell out from between the pages of star charts and photographs. A keepsake of the man who kept nothing.
Curiously, I unfolded the paper.
I stared at it for a long time, till the colors prismed through the tears blurring my vision. It was a child’s drawing: red and yellow monster fish swimming and smiling in a navy-blue ocean. No sign of budding artistic genius there.
I turned over the yellowed paper. In my father’s crisp, black hand was written,
Kyle, age 5
.
Author’s Note
Murder in Pastel
was started around the same time as
Fatal Shadows
. Originally it was written for my own amusement and there was no intention to publish it -- especially since I had used so many of the same themes and motifs (not to mention actual bits and pieces) of
Fatal Shadows
. But it remained one of my personal favorites, and I simply liked it too much not to share it.
Initially, I self-published using the pen name “Colin Dunne.” Later I sold the story to an indie publisher. Both times readers instantly recognized the Lanyon writing “voice,” and it seemed best to let the novel go out of print. So I did.
But
Murder in Pastel
belongs in the Lanyon catalog, and so I’ve had it re-edited and I’ve commissioned a wonderful cover by Johanna Ollila that brilliantly echoes Giorgio de Chirico’s “Mystery and Melancholy of a Street”.
I hope you enjoy the return of one of my favorite stories.
About the Author
A distinct voice in gay fiction, multi-award-winning author JOSH LANYON has been writing gay mystery, adventure and romance for over a decade. In addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and novels, Josh is the author of the critically acclaimed Adrien English series, including
The Hell You Say
, winner of the 2006 USABookNews awards for GLBT Fiction. Josh is an Eppie Award winner and a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist.
Find other Josh Lanyon titles at
www.joshlanyon.com
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.
If you enjoyed these stories, check out the following titles, also by Josh Lanyon:
Novels
The ADRIEN ENGLISH Mysteries
Fatal Shadows
A Dangerous Thing
The Hell You Say
Death of a Pirate King
The Dark Tide
Stranger Things Have Happened
The HOLMES & MORIARITY Mysteries
Somebody Killed His Editor
All She Wrote
Other novels
This Rough Magic (A SHOT IN THE DARK Series)
Fair Game (ALL’S FAIR Series)
The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks
Mexican Heat (with Laura Baumbach)
Strange Fortune
Come Unto These Yellow Sands
Stranger on the Shore
Novellas
The DANGEROUS GROUND Series
Dangerous Ground
Old Poison
Blood Heat
Dead Run
Kick Start
The I SPY Series
I Spy Something Bloody
I Spy Something Wicked
I Spy Something Christmas
The IN A DARK WOOD Series
In a Dark Wood
The Parting Glass
The DARK HORSE Series
The Dark Horse
The White Knight
Snowball in Hell (DOYLE & SPAIN Series)
Winter (HAUNTED HEART Series)
Mummy Dearest (XOXO FILES Series)
Other novellas
Cards on the Table
The Dark Farewell
The Darkling Thrush
The Dickens with Love
Don’t Look Back
A Ghost of a Chance
Lovers and Other Strangers
Out of the Blue
A Vintage Affair
Lone Star (in
Men Under the Mistletoe
)
Green Glass Beads (in
Irregulars
)
Blood Red Butterfly
Everything I Know
Short stories
A Limited Engagement
The French Have a Word for It
In Sunshine or In Shadow
Until We Meet Once More
Icecapade (in
His for the Holidays
)
Perfect Day
Heart Trouble
In Plain Sight
PETIT MORTS (SWEET SPOT Collection)
Other People’s Weddings
Slings and Arrows
Sort of Stranger Than Fiction
Critic’s Choice
Just Desserts
Merry Christmas, Darling (Holiday Codas)