Michael Nava, ‘America’s Finest Gay Mystery Writer’, Releases ‘Carved in Bone’
Hailed as “America’s finest gay mystery writer” by author Anthony Slide in Gay and Lesbian Characters and Themes in Mystery Novels: A Critical Guide to over 500 Works in English, Michael Nava is the author of a series of crime fiction novels featuring a gay, Latino criminal defense lawyer named Henry Rios.
Also the author of numerous other novels, including 2014’s City of Palaces – a historical novel set in the years just before and at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Nava founded Persigo Press in 2018 in order to publish his own work and the work of other LGBTQ writers and writers of color.
Nava’s novels featuring gay lawyer Henry Rios have won six Lamda Literary Awards, leading Nava to be called “one of our best” by the New York Times. In 2001, Nava was awarded the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award in LGBTQ Literature for his contributions.
Released this month, Nava’s most recent work is the first Henry Rios novel to be released in over 20 years. Set in 1984 as protagonist Henry Rios is released from rehab and getting his life back on track, Carved in Bone sees Rios reluctantly pick up work as an insurance claims investigator immediately assigned to investigate the seemingly accidental carbon monoxide poisoning of a young gay man named Bill Ryan in San Francisco. As Rios begins to suspect that it was no accident, the search for the truth about Bill’s death leads Rios to seek out the truth about Bill’s life, as HIV/AIDS bears down heavily on the LGBTQ community.
Aside from being a successful writer, Nava has also led a distinguished legal career, having earned his law degree from Stanford University. He retired from the law in July 2016. A native Californian and the grandson of Mexican immigrants, Nava now divides his time between San Francisco and Palm Springs. He can be reached via his Facebook page, “Michael Nava, Writer”.
To purchase a copy of Carved in Bone, please visit Amazon.
Watch the promo video for Carved in Bone below!
