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LIES WITH MAN

Los Angles, 1986

Evangelical Christians and right-wing politicians have teamed up to pass a ballot initiative to forcibly quarantine people with AIDS.

A fundamentalist church is firebombed killing its pastor who publicly supported the initiative.

A member of a militant gay activist group called QUEER (Queers United to End Erasure and Repression) is arrested for the bombing and charged with first-degree murder with the death penalty.

Henry Rios takes on the defense. As he delves into the case, shocking secrets emerge about the victim, his client, QUEER and the highest echelons of the Los Angeles Police Department leading to a heart-pounding denouement. (Lies With Man draws on true events—see the story behind the book that follows this release.)

Praise for Lies With Man and Michael Nava

“Henry Rios, cerebral, earthy, completely straightforward, and gay, is back in a book that, though set decades ago, deals with issues resonating today. Lies With Man is prime Michael Nava, a pro’s pro, a writer who can see all sides of an issue and knows which side he’s on. He also knows how to make a reader turn a page. I couldn’t put this book down and I urge everyone to pick it up.” —SJ Rozan, best-selling author of The Art of Violence

“Michael Nava’s eighth Henry Rios mystery may very well be his best —which is saying a lot considering the high bar he’s set for himself. Though set in 1980s Los Angeles, Lies With Man feels like a story ripped from today’s headlines. Nava’s powerful prose matches the weight of the story as he deftly unfurls a dark, haunting novel readers will find impossible to ignore.” — Alex Segura, acclaimed writer of Star Wars Poe Dameron, Free Fall, Miami Midnight, and Blackout


The Burning Plain Rios, raw from the death of his lover from AIDS, becomes involved with a young man who is murdered after spending the night with Rios. Rios becomes a suspect in the murder. In the process of clearing himself, he is drawn into the search for a serial killer who preys on young gay men in West Hollywood. He finds himself up against a homophobic cop, a hostile DA and a conspiracy that reaches into Hollywood’s power elite.	Rag and Bone In Rag and Bone, Rios, recovering from a heart attack, finds a family he never knew about when he’s called upon to defend the daughter his sister gave up for adoption when his niece is accused of killing her abusive husband. Publisher’s Weekly said of the novel, “Rios’s humanity and decency shine through this satisfying novel.”

The City of Palaces: A Novel

In the years before the Mexican Revolution, Mexico is ruled by a tiny elite that apes European culture, grows rich from foreign investment, and prizes racial purity.

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER FOR FREE HERE!!!

The City of Palaces: Promotional Video

Carved in Bone: A Henry Rios Novel (Henry Rios Mystery Series)
November 1984. Criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios, fresh out of rehab and picking up the pieces of his life, reluctantly accepts work as an insurance claims investigator and is immediately is assigned to investigate the apparently accidental death of Bill Ryan. Ryan, part of the great gay migration into San Francisco in the 1970s, has died in his flat of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty gas line, his young lover barely surviving. Rios’s investigation into Ryan’s death–which Rios becomes convinced was no accident–tracks Ryan’s life from his arrival in San Francisco as a terrified 18-year-old to his transformation into a successful businessman. What begins for Rios as the search for the truth about Bill Ryan’s death becomes the search for the meaning of Ryan’s life as the tsunami of AIDS bears down on the gay community.

Carved in Bone, A Henry Rios Mystery by Michael Nava. Set in San Francisco in 1984, Rios, a gay, Latino criminal defense lawyer, fresh out of rehab is trying to put his personal and professional lives together as the tsunami of AIDS crashes down on the gay community.

Carved in Bone: Promotional Video

Carved in Bone: Reviews

Lay Your Sleeping Head

In the first novel in the Henry Rios series, Rios a burned-out criminal defense lawyer becomes involved with Hugh Paris, the black sheep son of a legendary California family with devastating consequences.

Howtown In the fourth Rios novel, Rios returns to his hometown where he defends a pedophile accused of murder and confronts the ghosts of his own past. “Howtown is Nava’s bravest and most ambitious novel to date.” Los Angeles Times.	The Hidden Law In the fifth Rios novel, Rios is hired to represent a young man accused of murdering a prominent but corrupt Latino politician. “A beautifully conceived but gritty novel.” The San Francisco Chronicle	The Death of Friends In the sixth Rios novel, the murder of a closeted judge, with whom Rios once had an affair, finds Rios balancing his loyalties between the man’s family and his client, the man accused of killing the judge. “This is a brave, ambitious and highly impressive work.” Publisher’s Weekly.

The Rios novels and The City of Palaces are available as audioboks through Audible.