Book excerpt: The first three brilliantly realized novels in the Lambda Literary Award–winning historical mystery series featuring the real-life British painter. Spanning London during the Blitz to the postwar French Riviera to Tangier in the 1950s, these three mysteries in Janice Law’s award-winning Francis Bacon series richly reimagine the life of the famous and flamboyant Irish-born British painter as an “artist-sleuth . . . unflappable and acidly witty” as he courts danger, solves murders, and navigates international intrigue (Booklist). Fires of London: Francis Bacon patrols the streets of wartime London during the Blitz as an air raid warden, keeping watch for activities that might tip off the Axis powers. One night while making his rounds, the painter discovers an acquaintance from the gay bars murdered in Hyde Park. But he is only the first victim. Under cover of the blackout, someone is killing young gay men. When Bacon himself is suspected, he’s driven to find a killer on the ground, even as the Luftwaffe continues to rain death from the sky. Fires of London was a 2012 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best Gay Mystery. “Law does a bangup job of recreating London during the Blitz, and portraying real-life artist Francis Bacon as an unlikely sleuth.” —Publishers Weekly The Prisoner of the Riviera: World War II may be over, but the painter’s troubles are just beginning. After Bacon and his lover try to save a Frenchman gunned down outside a London gambling club, the casino owner approaches him with a proposition: He will forgive Bacon’s considerable debts if he delivers a package to the dead man’s widow on the French Riviera. What gambler could resist a trip to Monte Carlo? But against a bright backdrop of sun-drenched beaches, Bacon is soon drawn into dark intrigue and forced to gamble with his life. The Prisoner of the Riviera won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Mystery. “Law is close to perfect in presenting the timeless charms of the Riviera, and she’s just as satisfying in shaping Bacon as a reluctant but brave and somewhat lucky sleuth.” —Toronto Star Moon Over Tangier: Following his unstable lover, David, from London to colonial Morocco, Bacon falls in with a thriving community of expats in Tangier who guzzle champagne while revolutionaries gather in the desert. But when the painter identifies a friend’s Picasso as a fake, he soon finds himself entangled in the police investigation surrounding the forger’s demise. Between the bustle of postwar Tangier and the emptiness of the desert, Bacon finds that in Morocco’s international zone, even the fakes can be worth killing for. “The pacing is good, the bad guys—and gals—are bad, and the integration of art and painting provides a solid framework on which to hang the story.” —Historical Novel Society