Goodbye, Gay Gumshoe! :: Marshall Thornton on 'Boystown 13: Fade Out'

There's has always been noirish edge to Marshall Thornton's 1980s-set gay detective "Boyston" series. It's only fitting that the thirteenth – and final – installment in the adventures of Nick Nowak is titled "Fade Out."

Across the span of his many adventures – which number nineteen in total, since the first three volumes in the series contained three novellas each – Nick Nowak, openly gay private eye working the mean streets of Chicago in the 1980s, has confronted villains in many forms, from the serial killing "Bughouse Slasher," to the deeply-rooted homophobia of the police department he used to be part of, to the inexorable honors of the AIDS crisis. Along the way, Nick has fallen in love, had his heart broken, and learned when it means to have chosen family. He's found his own heroic nature in taking care of his late lover's elderly mother, tending to his dying best friend, and helping look after a gay teen.

A couple of books ago, Nick came up against his ultimate nemesis: A ruthless and clever woman named Rita Lundquist. She's a match for Nick in many ways: A street-smart fellow private investigator, but one who uses her skill set to steal, exploit, and even murder.

"Fade Out" is the thirteenth and final Nick Nowak mystery, and in it Nick and Lundquist go head to head one last time. When Nick is framed for murder, the obviously staged nature of the crime doesn't stop the DA from pursuing charges. To fight back, Nick will need to rely on loyal friends as well as shady acquaintances he was hoping to be done with. But as he traces a network of political corruption back to its source, Nick soon realizes that the complicated web of alliances and rivalries his life has become may now be a trap from which there is no escape – a trap that's been masterfully manipulated by Rita Lundquist, whose end game poses an elegant and murderously effective solution for all of her own problems, while exacting revenge by making Nick the fall guy who will pay the price for her misdeeds. Is there light at the end of this tunnel? Or will the darkness swallow Nick forever?

EDGE caught up with the prolific novelist (and winner of multiple Lambda Literary awards) to chat abut the end of the "Boystown" series, Thornton's other mystery series – the bright and L.A.-based "Pinx Videos" books – and his many standalone novels.

EDGE: I can't help feeling there's a thematic connection between the return of super-villain Rita Lindquist and the monster that was the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Was that a conscious resonance?

Marshall Thornton: I wouldn't say it was conscious beyond the fact that I feel all mysteries are a search for justice. Certainly, AIDS was an injustice. One that we're still struggling to vanquish.

EDGE: The books as a set brought Nick from freewheeling, sexually happy-go-lucky man to a place where he was much more reticent to indulge in casual encounters – partly as a response to the plague, but also because he's getting older and wiser. Was that arc part of your game plan all along?

Marshall Thornton: No. To be honest, when I started I didn't have much of a plan. One of the things that became important to me as I wrote the series was that Nick not make the same mistakes. I don't know if I'd view him as happy-go-lucky at the start. He might have felt that way or appeared that way, but he was using sex as a way to cover up a heartache, and continued to use it as an escape for a long time. I think as that became clearer to him he eventually had to step back.

EDGE: The events of "Fadeout" pick up just a couple of days after the conclusion of Book 12, "Broken Cord." What was the strategy for the timing of the two stories?

Marshall Thornton: I've known how I wanted to end the series for quite a while. In fact, I think I wrote that last scene before I began "Boystown 12: Broken Cord." Keeping the timeline tight was important to build up enough momentum to justify the ending.

EDGE: It's sad, as a reader, to say goodbye to the "Boystown" characters, but you've left lots of room for readers to imagine what Nick and his friends might get up to after the end of the books. Was the style and tone of the ending something you planned from the start, or did you let the story take you where it wanted to go in that respect?

Marshall Thornton: When I began thinking about ending the series, I wanted it to feel organic and satisfying. There are only so many ways to end it, and I considered many, but this was the only one that felt completely right.

EDGE: Now that you have finished the "Boystown" series, will it be a welcome change to get Nick's voice out of your head and explore different characters?

Marshall Thornton: Probably not. I've been writing one Nick Nowak book a year. I'm not sure I won't feel kind of awkward around this time next year when it would have been time for Number 14.

EDGE: You're continuing with your gay mystery series, "Pinx Video," which is set in Los Angeles in the 1990s. What is Noah – the video store owner and amateur sleuth at the center of those books – up to in his latest adventure?

Marshall Thornton: I have started the next Pinx Mystery. It's called "Cash Out." Noah and his friends go to Las Vegas to meet his mother who's getting married. As usual, things don't go as planned.

EDGE: Unlike Nick, Noah isn't a private eye, and his ability to get mixed up in murder is not a matter of the territory for his profession. Have you found it to be a fun task to come up with new and different ways for Noah to get embroiled in murder mysteries (while keeping those entanglements more or less plausible)?

Marshall Thornton: Yes, it is fun. Unlike other cozy mysteries (or at least those I've read), I poke gentle fun at the genre as a whole. In this upcoming book, his friends suggest he might have Fletcheritis (named after Jessica Fletcher of "Murder She Wrote" fame), a disease in which you're constantly stumbling over dead bodies. Though to be fair, Noah's friends are always there as well... so they might have a touch of it, too.

EDGE: When will the new "Pinx Video" book be available?

Marshall Thornton: I'm expecting to come out with "Cash Out" in the summer or early fall.

EDGE: And beyond that, have you charted out further adventures for Noah at this point?

Marshall Thornton: I have ideas for two more books after this one, which would bring it to seven. I'm not sure where I'll stop.

EDGE: Last time we talked, you mentioned wanting to start a whole new mystery series – I think you said something about making it a "nostalgia" series. Have you settled on a place and time, and maybe some other specifics for that series?

Marshall Thornton: I have written the first book in a new series which is set in 2003 during the early days of the Iraq war. It takes place in a rural county in northern lower Michigan. That book is called "The Less Than Spectacular Times of Henry Milch."

EDGE: I can't wait for that! It sound great! In addition to being a prolific author of ongoing series, you also write stand-alone novels. Last summer you published "Code Name: Liberty," a gay romance-thriller. If I'm not mistaken, this was a whole new genre for you, wasn't it? (Or would it be appropriate to think of your biomedical thriller "Never Rest," and maybe even the "erotic thriller" "Full Release" as belonging to the same genre?)

Marshall Thornton:: Is it a new genre? Yes and no, maybe. It's definitely nostalgia and, of course, I've done thrillers before. The strong political/espionage element is new. It isn't like "Never Rest," which is more horror/sci-fi thriller or "Full Release," which is a contemporary thriller.

EDGE: You seem to like writing about different points in the past. That interest in the past is certainly fulfilled in your novel "Aunt Belle's Time Travel & Collectibles," which really enjoys jumping into bygone years... literally, since time travel is part of the story. What draws you to times past?

Marshall Thornton: I think I've always been acutely aware of how much gay history has disappeared, either never collected or erased or edited by straight culture. As I've gotten older, it seems increasingly important to put down what I remember and record the way people I've known have lived. Of course, a large part of what I include is available in a raw form, putting it into fiction – particularly genre fiction – keeps it in front of people.

EDGE: Something interesting about history, and speculative fiction also, is that we see how human beings keep repeating the same cycles over and over. In a way, stories set in the future could also be "nostalgic" in that they could deal with times to come that are repetitions of things past. Have you considered exploring the future in a novel some day?

Marshall Thornton: I don't think I've ever been tempted to write about the future. Now that I think about it, I don't read or watch many stories that have to do with the future. I certainly have hopes for the future, but I guess I'm not tempted to build it myself.

EDGE: What other projects have you got, whether planned or already underway?

Marshall Thornton: Oh God, that's about it for now. I'm sure I'll put together something else sometime later this year.

"Boystown 13: Fade Out:" is now available at https://marshallthorntonauthor.com