First published in our paper magazine Upstart
Publisher: Alyson Pubns; First U.S. Edition edition (Mar. 1987)
The Wings of the Phoenix by Florine De Veer
This book was published in 1987, and has a not unremarkable opening line, “He cruised me in the park one June afternoon when I was on my way to a job interview”.
Mark is the older guy, recently moved to a new city, and trying ever so hard to get settled in. His cruising pal is ‘Blaise’ (why do the names never seem to be realistic, or is that my Atlantic bias showing through?)
Blaise is young, beautiful, one of the ‘in’ people, and controlled by a bad uncle.
The book develops through all the cliched plots you can imagine, and a menage trois finishes off what is an uninspiring story.
This is gay pulp fiction at its worst, the only really redeeming factor is the pretty front cover on this edition!