Donald Strachey Books In Order

Publication Order of Donald Strachey Books

Donald Strachey (Series by Richard Stevenson)
Author and journalist Richard Lipez writes the “Donald Strachey” series of mystery novels that were published under the pen name of Richard Stevenson. The series began publication in the year 1981, when “Death Trick”.

The series stars private investigator named Donald Strachey, a gay man that lives in Albany, New York, with Timothy Callahan, his life partner that works as a legislative aide to a New York state senator. His clients usually feel that his sexual orientation gives him the edge when it comes to investigating cases which involved Albany’s gay community.

Tim Callahan is the only character besides Donald that appears in every novel and every film. He is Don’s faithful companion and unfaithful lover.

Shavick Entertainment has adapted four of the novels (“Third Man Out”, “Shock to the System”, “On the Other Hand, Death”, and “Ice Blues”) in the series for Here!, the LGBT television network. The movies star Chad Allen as Donald and Sebastian Spence as Tim.

“Death Trick” is the first novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1981. A young guy has been savagely slain. And the gay son of a wealthy family has vanished. Now it is up to Don Strachey, a private dick, to get to the bottom of this, even if he must cruise every single gay bar in Albany to do it. Strachey ain’t exactly the most sought after private investigator in Albany, New York.

In fact, this gay PI has gotten to the point of having to write checks just to pay his tab at the cheapest lunch counter in town. And he’s not too sure that the latest one, which was just for two dollars and ninety-three cents, will clear.

But then his phone rings. Billy Blount, who is the gay heir to one of Saratoga Springs’ upper-crust families vanished, and his parents want him back. Additionally, Billy, who is a young and outspoken gay activist, is wanted for the grizzly murder of the man that he slept with on the last night he spent in Albany, it was a man that he’d never met before that night.

“On the Other Hand, Death” is the second novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1984. When the huge Millpond Company finds that its plans for their mega shopping mall getting stymied by the refusal of some elderly lesbian couple from selling their home, the ladies become subjected to some frightening death threats and ugly vandalism.

The Millpond’s powerful director hires Don Strachey, the only gay detective in Albany, to protect these ladies, find the culprits, and clear Millpond’s corporate name. It is a job that he accepts with misgivings that only deepen quickly while extortion, kidnapping, and murder just darken the lives of the gay community in Albany.

“Ice Blues” is the third novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1986. Somebody has left a man’s body in Donald’s car, the grandson of Albany’s most connected political fixer. This letter from the dead man asks for Strachey to deconstruct his grandpa’s party machine.

Strachey, like a chess master, moves an army of colorful pawns (that all believe they’re kings), ten suitcases, and $2.5 million across the continent and all over Albany.

“Third Man Out” is the fourth novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1992. Forced outing is still a hot button issue in gay politics.

When an activist’s claims that men he has outed are stalking him do not ring true, the only gay PI in Albany, drops his protection detail. And the client winds up dead. Strachey starts to peel back the layers of his client’s double cross just to find a triple cross.

“Shock to the System” is the fifth novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1995. Strachey gets asked by three different people to investigate the suspicious death of Paul Haig. Haig’s ex-lover, his homophobic mom, and the psychiatrist that was hired to “cure” him of his homosexuality.

Right when he gets going on his investigation, though, all three pull him off the case, which leaves Donald with a brutal murder that now everybody just wants left alone.

Richard delivers a satisfyingly complex plot, an outstanding cast of characters, realistic behavior and setting, and a rather snappy ending.

“Chain of Fools” is the sixth novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1996. Donald is asked to look into the events that surround the murder of Eric Osborne, which happened some months prior. His death, which was originally thought to be some random attack, takes on some new significance when Janet Osborne, who is Eric’s sister, survives an attempt on her life.

Skeeter, who was Eric’s lover, believed that both attacks were meant to silence both of them before their family’s newspaper could be sold. Strachey, now being drawn into a complicated family feud, has to unravel the secret behind the attacks before this killer can try again.

“Strachey’s Folly” is the seventh novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 1998. Violence interrupts the quiet reflection on tragedy when Timmy and Donald visit Washington so they can view the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Unexpected tales about a disgraced conservative congresswoman, and a gay Lothario with some designs on Strachey are the catalysts for Strachey’s investigation into a memorial to a guy that is not nearly as dead as he appeared.

“Tongue Tied” is the eighth novel in the “Donald Strachey” series and was released in the year 2003. Donald wouldn’t typically take a job from J-Bird, a right-wing radio “shock jock”, but he simply needs the money. He is intrigued that these death threats against the radio DJ are being made in the name of this radical gay rights group which has been defunct for more than twenty years, as well.

When things escalate past the threat stage, Donald has got precious little time to piece together the connection between a group out of the past and this violent present.