Man Eater / Night of the Sadist

This two-in-one edition features two uncut erotic thrillers--"Man Eater" and "Night of the Sadist--from the golden age of gay adults-only pulp fiction. "Man Eater"'s Jake Gold, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, moved to Europe and reinvented himself as a United Nations Crime Control Commission agent; he investigates vicious offenses that cut across national borders. But pursuing the "man eater," a sadistic serial killer murdering gay men with a pair of steel teeth, forces Jake to face the personal demons that could get him killed. In "Night of the Sadist," tabloid reporter Tom Maxon scours a shadowy urban underworld of hustlers, pimps and S&M parties for his brother's killer, and falls in love in the process: If only his new boyfriend weren't also a prime suspect. Vintage gay erotic novels, many written by novelists unable to find other outlets for fiction about gay men, peaked between 1968 and 1982. As censorship laws were struck down across the US, the best of these writers continued to turn out well-plotted genre novels--spy thrillers, science-fiction tales, mysteries, swashbuckling adventures, gothic romances and even pre-"Brokeback Mountain" westerns--within whose conventions they were able to explore the full range of their characters' lives. Surprisingly modern with just a dash of retro appeal these largely-forgotten novels are both great, fun reads and a bracing reminder that times change but people don't.