Books by Felice Picano

Shocking and controversial, The Lure has become a classic of gay fiction with its candid description of New York’s gay subculture. The works of Felice Picano need little introduction. As one of the founding members of The Violet Quill, the foremost post-Stonewall gay writing movement, (other members included Edmund White and Andrew Holleran), Picano has published many acclaimed works of both fiction and non-fiction.First published in 1979, The Lure rocketed Picano to commercial literary fame. The book tells the story of Noel Cummings whose life changes irrevocable after witnessing a brutal murder. Noel is recruited to assist the police by acting as the lure for a killer who has been targeting gay men. Undercover, Noel moves deeper and deeper into the dark side of Manhattan's gay life that stirs his own secret desires—until he forgets he is only playing a roleWith its nail-biting plot, and masterful suspense this gay thriller has lost none of its razor’s edge today and its depiction of the underground New York scene has never been more timely as TV series’ such as The Deuce, and Pose re-visit the 1970’s and 80’s. "Explosive...Felice Picano is one hell of a writer" - Stephen King

Bright, ambitious, and handsome, Ross Ohrenstedt is a high flier in the fashionable field of queer studies. He has just taken a prestigious university position in Los Angeles and has been appointed to oversee the collection of papers and works of a leading light of the gay literary salon known as the Purple Circle. Ross stumbles across a lost work by an unknown author and his quest to identify the mystery writer and achieve the glory of scholastic tenure unveils increasingly bizarre and unbalanced facts about a group of writers who in the 1970s and 1980s broke new ground in the creation of a gay literary sensibility. But the dark truth contained within The Book of Lies is even more startling.With biting wit and a lush sense of place and character, Felice Picano's daring novel is at once a stylish mystery, a comical roman-à-clef, and a wicked send-up of the new Ivory Tower.First published to acclaim in 1998, this new edition for 2020 features a foreword by David Bergman (The Violet Hour)."The Book of Lies is funny, dark, sexy, shocking, and yes, smart. Set in the near future ('decades after Stonewall'), the novel tells of a young scholar trying to make his academic bones on the literary bodies of the 'Purple Circle'. Picano skewers the pedagogically pretentious with ease and wit. A wonderful novel, with some of Picano's best writing." - Bay Area Reporter"Picano treats his nonpulpy subject matter - grieving, the book business, the teaching business - in a pulpy way, and the results are surprisingly entertaining." - The New York Times Book Review"Based on Picano's involvement with the Violet Quill Club (which included Edmund White and Andrew Holleran), this is an absorbing Henry James-style comedy of manners about how even when some writers find their way out of the closet, others still get left behind." - The Mail on Sunday"Felice Picano's new novel, his 19th book, is a story rich with history - a history that Picano himself was part of and helped shape ..." - The Washington Blade"Leave it to Felice Picano to add a walloping dose of melodrama and intrigue to a tale already redrawing genre boundaries ... What Picano does is take an academic mystery (subject matter that might have proved tedious or solipsistic in lesser hands) and morphs it into something new - a page-turning, often campy, occasionally serious critique of academia and historical truth, literary celebrity, and the imminent future of America." - Philadelphia Tribune

Victor Regina should be perfectly happy in New York. His novels are best sellers, he has a kick-ass agent, and the upcoming Black Party at the exclusive club Flamingo promises to be a cornucopia of gay desire. But New York is hard. The city is gripped by a winter that won't quit, and although he has plenty of dishy friends, there is no lover in the picture. When his agent calls with an offer from Hollywood to adapt his latest novel, Justify My Sins, for a famous director, he jumps at the chance.In ';El Lay,' the sun is warm, the food is fantastic, the men are plentiful and eager. It's all so easy. So easy, in fact, that Victor begins to suspect there's nothing quite real about itnot the quick affairs, not the luxurious cars and ostentatious architecture, and certainly not the film script or scenario or treatment or whatever the hell it is everyone wants him to write. He begins to long for NYC, hard but real.Noted names and events of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s intermingle with public triumphs and private tragedies in this hilarious roman clef with a heart. Felice Picano exposes the clash between celebrity and integrity, the rivalry between love and lust, while showcasing the grittiness of Manhattan and the voluptuousness of Hollywood. Through disastrous production meetings, steamy sex clubs, and encounters with friends who grow old, or strange, or both, Victor tries not once, not twice, but three times to find authenticity and contentment in a life that, while perhaps never fully justified, is fully lived.

'A hugely ambitious and engrossing saga...gloriously camp and also acts as a critique of America in general' - Guardian

*Bringing to life three decades of gay history, a campus novel of love, intrigue and betrayal from the winner of the GAY TIMES Readers' Award for Fiction 1996.