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Book Summary and Reviews of Mirage City by Lev AC Rosen

Mirage City by Lev AC Rosen

Mirage City

Evander Mills #4

by Lev AC Rosen

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 272 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Lev AC Rosen delivers a new and captivating 1950s mystery in this dazzling, award-winning series.

Private Investigator Evander "Andy" Mills' next case takes him out of his comfort zone in San Francisco―and much to his dismay, back home to Los Angeles. After a secretive queer rights organization called the Mattachine Society enlists Andy to find some missing members, he must dodge not only motorcycle gangs and mysterious forces, but his own mother, too.

Avoiding her proves to be a challenge when the case leads Andy to the psychiatric clinic she works at. Worlds collide, buried secrets are dug up, and Andy realizes he's going to have to make some hard choices. With secrets, drugs, and doctors swirling around him, time is running out for Andy to locate the missing and get them to safety. And for him to make it back to San Francisco in one piece.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] well-built procedural with fascinating tidbits of queer history...The real magic, though, is in Rosen's depiction of the struggles and triumphs of mid century queer life: he highlights pockets of LGBTQ+ resilience, including Evander's San Francisco community and emergent gay subcultures in L.A., without painting the past in too rosy a light. This series deserves a long life." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Required reading for anyone who wonders what it was like to be queer before Stonewall." —Kirkus Reviews

"If you are in the mood for a throwback to mystery writers like Dashiell Hammett, take a look at Rosen's 1950s noir series...Mirage City is a fascinating and sobering read, giving historical context for attitudes and ideas that have yet to be fully consigned to the dustbin of history." —BookPage

"As with earlier series entries, character development and worldbuilding take center stage. Should appeal to fans of Cat Sebastian and KJ Charles and those who enjoy a gritty noir detective story with an appealing protagonist." —Library Journal

This information about Mirage City was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Lev A.C. Rosen writes books for people of all ages, including the Evander Mills series, which began with the Macavity Award-winning Lavender House and continues with The Bell in the Fog and Rough Pages. His most recent young adult novels are Emmett, Lion's Legacy, and Camp. Rosen's books have been nominated for Anthony and Lambda Awards and have been selected for best-of lists from the Today show, Amazon, Library Journal, Buzzfeed, Autostraddle, Forbes, and many others. He lives in NYC with his husband and a very small cat.

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