Night of the Sadist

i've been eyeing the 120 Days imprint for a while now, because vintage gay pulp fiction is 101% my thing, and so when i got accepted for this on netgalley i was over the moon!

there's an interesting and useful introduction at the beginning which i thought illumined the cultural context of this novel - the gay subculture of 1970s america - extremely well. it doesn't give away any spoilers, so you can read it before the book itself (i always read intros afterwards following an encounter with dracula in which the intro basically told you everything about the novel.)

the story itself was very good. it was a mystery with lots and lots of gay, kinky as hell sex that reminded me a lot of james lear - at least i know where he got his inspiration from now! it's difficult to have a book with loads of sex scenes in without it being repetitive, but the BDSM nature of it meant there was always something unexpected cropping up (no pun intended. okay, maybe a little bit).

i was also guessing until the very end who the actual murderer was - in addition to the five prostitutes the victim slept with on the night of his murder, there are a couple of other mildly suspicious characters floating around.

all in all, i really liked this, and i can't wait to see what other vintage stuff 120 Days has been re-publishing!

I LOVED being able to read this! When I was in my early 20's I found a handful of gay pulp fiction books at a used books store that was some of my earliest access to gay themed books (early 1980s). This form of M/M Erotica is a lost art form. Dark, steamy and tons of sex-- usually pushing the boundaries-- wrapped up in a clever, engaging plot.

Night of the Sadist is a perfect example of this art form and was highly entertaining. Though the climax (no pun intended) of this erotic thriller was a little predictable.... the journey getting there was a thrilling ride. A wonderful array of diverse, well thought out characters.

The lengthy introduction was a really nice touch-- filling in the rich history of classic queer pulp fiction and putting it in context for today's readers.

I received and ARC copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

3, 5 stars rounded up

I am aware that the main idea of vintage gay pulp fiction from the pre-Internet and pre-AIDS era was to fulfill the erotic fantasies of its readers in the first place and less to impress them as a literary work, but as already Man Eater, my first book in the 120 Days Books collection, this book again positively surprised me with a solid writing and a brisk smart plot. Don't underestimate vintage gay genre.

I am looking forward to reading more of this collection and I'd like to express my gratitude to the Riverdale Avenue Books and to Maitland McDonagh for this idea to republish unjustly forgotten gay adults-only novels of the 1960s and '70s.

In Night of the Sadist journalist Tom Maxon investigates the brutal death of his brother Bob on his own, because the police doesn't have any interest to find a murderer of a faggot who got himself killed by some hustler. Bob wrote gay erotica for a small publisher and spent his free time in wild sex parties.

The clue to his death could be find either in Bob's last manuscript, the writing of de Sade who inspired him for his last novel and for sure somewhere in the circle of his friends and acquaintances. It means Tom has to read his last draft and to attend the BDSM scene where Bob spent most part of his time. Probably you'll find the killer quicker than Tom and if you a real BDSM expert you will find some unauthentic scenes to complain with, but don't forget the main target of these books: to arouse erotic fantasies and joie de vivre.

Be prepared for a LOT of kinky dark steamy sex, that is everything but not repetitive, and an entertaining engaging mystery. Those books are part of gay pop culture and a hidden history, a must read for all lovers of gay erotica.

Very recommended.

Another great vintage gay erotica novel from 120 Days. I see that this was at one point published with [book:Man Eater|36695748], which I also read and enjoyed, and I definitely think they have a similar feel and go well together [although this is honestly much less graphic in terms of the violence/murder, and also without the unfortunate trans issues present in Man Eater]. I really liked this and I thought there was a nice balance between the plot of the guy trying to find his brother's killer and the gratuitous sex scenes that you would obviously expect to be there.

I saw one review that said they didn't think the mystery was well-represented and that there were 'no clues' until the last 10% of the book, but I would definitely have to disagree with that because I figured out who it was probably about halfway through [and I'm usually horrible at guessing the murderer]. I personally like books where you can figure out 'whodunnit' fairly easily because 1. it makes me feel smart lol and 2. it means that the author has explained enough in the text that they don't need to spend a ridiculous amount of time at the end recapping the entire plot and explaining everything.

Anyway, really fun book, definitely recommend you read the introduction as it does give very good context for the plot of the book and the time in which it was written. Also there's a fair bit of watersports in this but it's not really ...that explicit I guess? I mean I'm not into that at all and it wasn't really present enough to bother me or make me knock down my rating, but I was just like 'ugh, again?' a few times so I thought it might be best to warn people about it. Other than that it's all pretty standard BDSM stuff [although there is one scene that is not exactly consensual so I guess watch out for that too].

Brought to us by 120 Days/Riverdale Avenue books who are (in their words)
”A press dedicated to republishing unjustly forgotten gay adults-only novels of the 1960s and ‘70s”

Night of the Sadist was originally published in 1971 and re-released for today’s readers (again I’ll quote them) to enjoy some “great retro fun”.

The idea of discovering these older stories and finding out more about this genre appealed to me, and I really love the title, so I gave this one a shot.

There were things I enjoyed about Night of the Sadist but this one fell just short of the mark for me. I think I’m spoiled by the “adults-only” authors of today, and I prefer my erotica with a bit more polish.

My other issue was the mystery. Woven in between the erotica, the story is about a man who comes to town to find his brother’s killer. The police are clearly not interested in finding the murderer and they basically just come right out and say that a gay guy who likes rough sex with multiple partners “gets what he deserves”. So the brother takes over the entire investigation to solve the case.

Also, I’m not sure if this is author Paul Laurie’s writing style, or if they are purposely going with a “noir" or "pulp" feel, but it stopped working for me after awhile.

I’m not done with my foray into the world of vintage gay erotica. I love the covers of these classic books - and the titles are awesome so I’m glad to have the opportunity to discover them. If you do give this one a shot, the forward by Maitland McDonagh is excellent.