The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Rag and Bone (Henry Rios #7)
By Michael Nava
Open Road Integrated Media, 2013 (originally published 2001)
Five stars

“I replied with the sobs of a little boy and buried myself against her.”

The late Joseph Hansen, to whom Michael Nava dedicated one of his Henry Rios novels, ended his final installment of the remarkable David Brandstetter series with a heart attack. Nava starts the final book in his series with a heart attack.

But this is a different heart attack. It is one of rebirth and resurrection. From the bleak, despair-filled Los Angeles of “The Burning Plain,” Nava moves us—devoted readers all—to a very different Los Angeles. This is an intensely small city, suffocating in its intimacy. This is not the city of Hollywood, of movie stars; this is the Los Angeles of Latino gangs and tight-knit families beset by all the problems that being poor and brown affords in the land of the free.

This book is Henry’s journey back into the light. There is violence and death, but there is also love, and a kind of family that Henry never imagined he’d know. This page-turning murder mystery is filled with emotion, and a lot of that emotion serves to liberate Henry Rios from the self-imposed exile to which he consigned himself when Josh Mandel died.

“For fifteen years, being gay has been like sitting in a trench on a battlefield.”

Henry, at forty-nine, has fought for the rights of the least loved of America’s people. His razor-sharp mind and unyielding integrity have made him famous across the Golden State; but they have not made him rich, and they have not made him happy. But Henry is not unhappy, because he doesn’t have any sense that he deserves any more than what life has dealt him. His childhood was ruined by his abusive father and passive mother; his youth was lost in drinking. His early middle-life was taken up with finding and losing his first great love. Through it all, Henry has kept working. His thirst for justice, or at least judicial correctness, has kept him alive. Maybe, at last, it’s time for Henry Rios to live.

This is the most moving of all of the Henry Rios stories, because it is so personal. I loved it, but not just because of its uplifting narrative. I loved it because it seems like a fitting finale for an epic series of well-crafted and compelling novels. It is Michael Nava’s last love song to the remarkable character he created, a character for whom the world of fiction should be most grateful.

Ulysses wrote: "Rag and Bone (Henry Rios #7)
By Michael Nava
Open Road Integrated Media, 2013 (originally published 2001)
Five stars

“I replied with the sobs of a little boy and buried myself against her.”

The l..."

The entire Henry Rios series is class-A incredible; deep character development. I read them all when they were first released, so waiting a year for two for the next installment was tough - unlike today where follow-ups in a series seem to be getting shorter (below 60k words); and are released faster, mainly because of the popularity of e-book, indie and self-publisher; rare are the gay mystery series today that can achieve what Michael Nava's Henry Rios Mysteries have - though I can name a few, but will not post here since you're highlight Nava's fine series!!