THERE'S ONLY ONE SIN IN HOLLYWOOD

An unflinching drama about queer Black history in the guise of a glittering, slow-burn mystery about a closeted actor in Hollywood’s golden age.

In Newson’s second novel, Aaron Toussaint, a Black Hollywood insider, tells the story of two men who were his friends and lovers before one of them died under suspicious circumstances. Aaron is an intriguing and unusual character: a married Navy man turned studio fixer—investigator/muscle/private relations specialist—who’s gay and deeply closeted. In 1971, he decides to seek justice for his friends by chronicling their fabulous lives and tragic deaths in the 1950s and ’60s in a letter to a renowned gay journalist who’s created an archive of queer history. Within that frame, real history and debates over identity play a prominent role in this sexy and political novel. Aaron and his lovers represent divergent approaches to masculinity and queerness in the mid-20th century. Brutalized by his father and brother as a child, Aaron is guarded and conservative as a means of self-preservation. His ambivalence about his own sexuality and his passionate relationship with the fiercely closeted and self-consciously macho war hero Lt. Horace “the Hornet” Dixon, whom he served under and fell in love with in the Navy, set key events in motion. Rising star Xavier C. Barlow is Aaron’s other lover. When Xavier is cast as Horace in a Hollywood biopic, he’s determined to strike a blow against the celluloid closet by surfacing the hidden romantic connection between Aaron and Horace as subtext in the movie. As Aaron chronicles Xavier’s rise and fall, the three men mingle with real, boldfaced names like Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, and Diahann Carroll. They love, protest, and debate with passion. Blending the sensationalism of James Ellroy and the social awareness of Walter Mosley (though not his elegance), Aaron vividly demonstrates why Xavier’s grand life and likely murder needs to be part of the historical record. It’s fascinating, and yet while Xavier’s violent death looms over the proceedings, the vast majority of the novel focuses on how the men lived—so much so that it’s easy to forget the mystery and investigation, which only come into focus at the very end.

Though more saga than mystery, this ambitious novel takes big swings and mostly succeeds.