SOMEONE YOU KNOW

A closeted gay journalist is stalked by a serial killer who sends him the victims’ body parts.

Visiting Seattle from Providence, Rhode Island, for a convention, newspaper columnist Daniel Caruso picks up hunky local firefighter Stephen Hart. Next day, Hart is found murdered, and the killer begins sending Daniel threatening messages as well as a box containing (presumably) Hart’s sexual organ. Daniel’s wife, Sarah, and his children, Jamie and Aidan, notice his edginess but have no clue about his double life, which has included regular forays to bathhouses and various shadowy cruising spots for one-night stands. Daniel’s policeman friend Jared O’Connor, who’s been working with him on a gay-bashing case and guessed his secret, learns that Hart was the victim of a serial killer whose victims are somehow linked to Daniel. When he receives a human hand and increasingly menacing messages, Daniel begins to fear for his family’s safety as well as his own. His inner struggle to be honest about his homosexuality—with Sarah, with his kids, and with himself—becomes as consuming as the search for the killer. Intending to trap his tormentor, Daniel complies with his instruction to rendezvous at a New York S&M club where leather hood masks are required. But his plan goes awry.

First-novelist Zebrun uses his nominal mystery as a MacGuffin for a heartfelt, gracefully written, and explicit tale of sexual angst and self-discovery.