the Lineup (2010) by Penzler Otto

Author:Penzler, Otto [Otto, Penzler,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 2011-01-14T19:09:14.312000+00:00

One of the questions I'm asked most frequently is what led me to make Milo homosexual. The answer is simple: the quest for something new and interesting and original. And what could be more compelling than a man, newly open about his sexuality, whose very presence in the Los Angeles Police Department would engender tension.

The timing was right. Long gone were the days when LA cops routinely busted gay bars--and gay heads. (Though I was able to plumb that brutal territory for flashback scenes in The Murder Book--a novel about which I will have more to say.) Which doesn't mean that the Los Angeles Police Department during the early eighties was in any way gay friendly. Quite the contrary. Even nowadays, when a handful of gay cops have gone public, I'm doubtful that homosexuality will ever be totally accepted in the paramilitary organization that is the LAPD.

In 1981, there were... ahem... no gay cops in the LAPD. If you believed the official account. I knew from my contacts that there were several gay cops in the LAPD. And that, for the most part, they went about their jobs without much fuss--neither running from nor flaunting their sexuality.

Just cops, like any others, doing the job.

In 1981, "gay but so what" seemed to me a revolutionary concept.

The more I thought about it, the fresher and more innovative became the notion of a homosexual homicide detective operating within a homophobic organization that tolerated him, barely, because he did the job better than anyone else.

But Milo couldn't be gay--the feather boa, lisping, limp-wristed gay of camp theater and episodic TV and West Hollywood Halloween parades. Because, apart from being the worst sort of cliche, a guy like that wouldn't survive a single shift in the LAPD. No matter how high his solve rate.

No, the cop I conceptualized would be different: tough, grumpy, sloppy, and also altogether professional and highly intelligent. A homicide veteran with a precarious foothold in the world of law enforcement based on nothing other than raw talent.

Milo's homosexuality is right out in the open in When the Bough Breaks, as he announces it to Alex because he doesn't want Alex to find out some other way and freak out. Alex reacts with surprise, then acceptance. The two of them become friends.

After the book was published, I received a ton of nice mail from gay people along the lines of "I've always loved mystery novels, but they're so homophobic. Thanks so much for Milo."

Bear in mind that in 1985, gay characters in mainstream fiction were just about nonexistent. No Will & Grace, no Brokeback Mountain. No Project Runway.

Was I out to create a social revolution? Hell, no. With thirteen years of abject failure behind me, I never even expected to publish the darn thing, let alone write a series or build the foundation of a durable career. Looking back, I realize that low expectations fed my courage: with nothing to lose, I had the fortitude to create a novel that, at first glance, had absolutely no commercial potential.

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