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Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York
Maybe someday
41
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
29/100Critics
53/100Scholars
Author:
Elon Green
Publisher:
Celadon Books
Date:
March 9, 2021
The true story of the Last Call Killer and the gay community of New York City that he preyed upon.
What The Reviewers Say
Rather than focus on the killer—who has all the allure of a wet cocktail napkin—he foregrounds the lives and milieus of the victims. It’s a reparative act that doubles as an extended elegy for the decades of closeted or bullied queers who encountered similar demons in schoolyards, across dinner tables, in pews, or in the browser histories they desperately erased.
... a stunning addition to the gay corner of the true-crime genre.
Last Call is Green’s first book, and it admirably demonstrates his commitment to sidestepping easy sensationalism for the far grittier work of checking sources, poring over police reports and reinterviewing witnesses.
Weaving together multiple histories and jumping back and forth in time can be hit-or-miss as a narrative structure, but Last Call does it well, thanks to Green’s original reporting conducted with law enforcement, politicians, victims’ families and patrons at gay bars where Rogers lurked.
