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Michael Nava (1954 - )
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 Rag
and Bone by Michael
Nava
The good news is that
Henry Rios, the hero of several of Michael Nava's earlier
thrillers (The
Death of Friends, The
Burning Plain) is back. The bad news, spelled out in the
acknowledgments, is that "this book brings to an end this
series of mysteries and my career as a mystery writer." If
this is your first exposure to the author or his hero, you'll be
as sorry to read the end note as Nava's justly deserved fan club.
Rios, a gay Hispanic lawyer, has been described
as an "outsider" hero, dedicated to finding justice in a
world where it seems to be a highly perishable commodity. His keen
intelligence is matched by his vulnerability, in this case to the
emotional demands placed on him by a sudden heart attack that
leaves him wondering whether life is still worth living, and the
news that his sister, a former nun, once had a daughter, who has
been found and then lost again. Tracing Vicky and her 10-year-old
son Angel isn't that difficult for Henry. An abused woman hiding
from a violent ex-husband doesn't have that many ways to
disappear. But there's something about Vicky that doesn't fit the
abuse profile, and when she's charged with killing Angel's father,
Henry is torn between his desire to free her and his sense that
there's more to the story than she's telling him. There is, of
course, but it's the multidimensionality of his central characters
rather than the mysteries they're caught up in that drive Nava's
perceptive, brilliantly explicated novels. Love in its many guises
drives this one--love between Henry and John, the first man to
touch Rios's heart in many years, and love for Angel, the nephew
in whom he sees a chance to redeem his own unhappy childhood. Nava
leaves his series hero in their good hands, with a new career as a
judge ahead of him. And he leaves his devoted readers hoping he'll
change his mind and bring Henry back again, perhaps this time from
the bench instead of the bar. --Jane Adams
 Little
Death by Michael
Nava
Introduced by Alyson in 1986, the Henry Rios
mystery series by Michael Nava will come to an end with the
publication of Rag and Bone in 2001. Spanning 15 years and
seven books, Nava's brilliant storytelling has earned him
comparisons to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, four Lambda
Literary Awards, and a worldwide following. His crisp storytelling
takes readers deep into a world beneath the veneer of
glamour-where idealism is challenged by betrayal and justice can
be defeated by corruption. Henry Rios has evolved from a San
Francisco public defender to a Los Angeles defense lawyer;
recovered from alcoholism; met, fallen in love with, and lost his
lover Josh to AIDS; battled the cultural realities of being an
openly gay Latino in California; and struggled in a very human way
with the conflict between what is morally right and what is
legally just. As The New York Times Book Review put it
recently, Henry "doesn't win any friends for choosing
dispassionate justice over revenge. But he does it anyway because
he's one of the good guys-and Nava is one of the best."
Alyson is proud to have been part of the Henry Rios series. We
congratulate Michael Nava on his success and look forward to
seeing what comes next.
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University of California Library, Department of
Special Collections
Biography:
Michael Nava was born in Stockton, CA, on Sep.
16, 1954; raised in Sacramento, CA; B.A., history, Colorado
College, 1976; met his first lover Bill Weinberger in 1980; law
degree, Stanford University, 1981; began law practice 1981-1984 in
[Palo Alto?]; moved with Weinberger to Los Angeles and was in
private practice, Encino, 1984-1986; published first detective
novel The Little Death (1986); worked as research attorney,
California Court of Appeals 1986-1995; next writings include
Goldenboy (1988), Finale (1989), How town (1990), The hidden law
(1992), Created equal: why gay rights matter to America (1994),
and The death of friends (1996); relationship with Weinberger
ended 1989; met lover Andrew Ferrero; moved to San Francisco 1995
to write and to establish and to establish a private law practice...
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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