Goodbye to Beekman Place
a novel
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
What's the saddest you've ever been?
Mine is so deep, I can only face it in the moment of clarity immediately following a drinking bender. I wake up in the wee hours, heart racing, thirsty for water. In the darkness of my bedroom, I push away whoever happens to be next to me, and I step outside for a cigarette, thinking about my life and what I've become. I'm alone in my thoughts…always alone…and as the smoke fills my lungs, the truth fills my head, cold, unfiltered, and very, very sad.
Sadness as deep as mine cannot be discussed with others. It would scare them, disgust them, and push them away forever. I'd have no friends at all if I shared my story openly. But I need to tell someone. My existence depends on it. And I need to tell it in a way that won't cause them to gather the children and lock the door. Or let the phone go to voicemail.
Or worst of all, call the police…
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
On a cold night in 1980, a young gay man is murdered in the old Beekman Place Hotel in Peoria, Illinois. The crime is brutal and sexual, and the killer left behind two clues that seem to have traveled through time: Coca Cola from 1902 – made with cocaine instead of caffeine - and Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Clove Cigarettes, a brand defunct since 1898. With no witness to the crime and no match to fingerprints, the murder remains unsolved.
Twenty-seven years later, Frankie Downs – a writer for OldPlaces Magazine – travels from Chicago to Peoria to research Beekman Place’s nefarious past. That evening, Downs hits it off with a young gay tenant and a consensual S&M encounter ensues. When Frankie leaves for Chicago in the wee hours, the boy is still alive. But the following morning, the young man is found dead, in the same style, at the same hotel, and with the same clues as 27 years before. Unfortunately for Downs, in addition to being a suspect today, his fingerprints also match the 1980 crime…but he is not the killer.
Detective Kellie Hogan knows that Beekman Place hides a dangerous secret. The hotel is the key to a growing series of murders within the gay leather community, and her investigation reveals an ominous connection that’s driving the actions of everyone around her.
But something is very wrong.
Kellie realizes that in order to stop the present day killer, she must journey deep into the hotel’s sordid past to reveal a secret that’s been hidden in plain sight from the moment Frankie Downs began to write his story.
And it all revolves around the search for a single missing man...
About the Author
David Alan Dedin grew up in rural Illinois and came of age in the early days of AIDS. He presently lives in the Chicago Area.