Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York

Today’s is on Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green. It is 256 pages long and is published by Celadon Books. The cover is a picture of New York from above. The intended reader is someone who is interested in true crime and LGBT+ history. There is some foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and descriptions of violence. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- The gripping true story, told here for the first time, of the Last Call Killer and the gay community of New York City that he preyed upon.

The Townhouse Bar, midtown, July 1992: The piano player seems to know every song ever written, the crowd belts out the lyrics to their favorites, and a man standing nearby is drinking a Scotch and water. The man strikes the piano player as forgettable.

He looks bland and inconspicuous. Not at all what you think a serial killer looks like. But that’s what he is, and tonight, he has his sights set on a gray haired man. He will not be his first victim.

Nor will he be his last.

The Last Call Killer preyed upon gay men in New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s and had all the hallmarks of the most notorious serial killers. Yet because of the sexuality of his victims, the skyhigh murder rates, and the AIDS epidemic, his murders have been almost entirely forgotten.

This gripping true-crime narrative tells the story of the Last Call Killer and the decades-long chase to find him. And at the same time, it paints a portrait of his victims and a vibrant community navigating threat and resilience.

Review- At the height of the AIDS epidemic someone was hunting and killing gay men in New York and it was being ignored by the police. This book is about more than just about true crime but about gay life in the New York at the time, homophobia, and how AIDS changed the way gay subculture worked. Green interviews the police, the men who went to the piano bars where the killer hunted and he tries to interview the man convicted of the murders. There are good notes in the back, if you want to learn more about a particular subject within the book. If you are looking for a pure true crime book then this is not the book for you but if you are looking for more of a study about a time and the murders that almost went unsolved the you should give this book a try. 

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.