It’s time for Murderino Monday! Thank you @celadonbooks (partner) for my gift copy of ‘Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, & Murder in Queer New York’ by Elon Green! (pub 3/9/21). (The above photo is my Instagram post & I would love it if you would click HERE to go give that post a LIKE or a SHARE now.)
The gripping true story, told here for the first time, of the Last Call Killer & 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, & a man standing nearby is drinking a Scotch & water. The man strikes the piano player as forgettable.
He looks bland & 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 & ‘90s & had all the hallmarks of the most notorious serial killers. Yet because of the sexuality of his victims, the skyhigh murder rates, & the AIDS epidemic, his murders have been almost entirely forgotten.
This gripping true-crime narrative tells the story of the Last Call Killer & the decades-long chase to find him. And at the same time, it paints a portrait of his victims & a vibrant community navigating threat & resilience.
This is Celadon Books first true crime book & boy, is it a good one! Elon Green really did a fantastic job creating this fascinating, non-fiction book, & it is very well researched. As I always do when reading true crime books or listening to podcasts, I went down the Google rabbit-hole to devour even more information about Richard Rogers, who was dubbed the Last Call Killer, watching interview videos, looking at crime scene pics, & reading more & more about Roger’s heinous crimes. True crime show ‘Mark of a Killer’ (on Oxygen) has an episode about the LCK that I plan to watch on Prime soon, too.
This book does get pretty graphic & I did have to put it down a few times to regroup. It also brought to mind a more well-known serial killer who also killed gay men & dismembered them (sometimes ate parts)…Jeffrey Dahmer. (Oh, & please do not confuse LCK, Richard Rogers, w/ the fabulous composer, Richard RoDgers, who has a theater in NYC named after him where ‘Hamilton’ is currently housed.👇🏻)
‘Last Call‘ is positively gripping, riveting, & addictive reading for true-crime aficionados like myself. This is a book you will want to devour in one sitting & then research more about (like I did w/this book & many others, like last years ‘American Predator‘), just don’t blame me when you have nightmares. ‘Last Call‘ releases this coming March 9th, so pre-order it & get it on your TBR lists.
Click HERE to add ‘Last Call’ to your Goodreads lists.
Click HERE to pre-order this book at an indie book store near you using BookStoreLink.
Click HERE to go to my Instagram post & give it a LIKE or a story share.
Click HERE to go to Elon Green’s website & learn more about him & this book!
*Mom Loves Reading* 