The Lesbian Pulp MEGAPACK ™: Three Complete Novels

by Fletcher Flora

Fletcher Flora enjoyed a long career as a pulp fiction and mystery writer, and among his works we discovered a number of "daring" (for the time -- they are quite modest by modern standards) novels of lesbian love (some with crime elements). All were published as paperback originals from somewhat-less-than-respectable publishing companies -- Strange Sisters in 1954 and Desperate Asylum in 1955 from Lion Books, and Take Me Home in 1959 from Monarch. If you like your pulp fiction on the steamier side, this is the ebook for you. Included are:

Strange Sisters (1954)

Desperate Asylum (1955)

Take Me Home (1959)

If you enjoy this book, search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the 200+ other entries in the series, covering science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, westerns, classics, adventure stories, and much, much more!

456 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 19, 2015

About the author

Fletcher Flora was born in Parsons, Kansas in 1914. Flora began writing soon after returning from World War II. His crime and mystery short stories and novels were published in magazines like Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mr., Cosmopolitan, and in Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery anthologies. He received the Cock Robin Mystery Award for his first hard cover novel, Killing Cousins in 1960. Flora wrote over 150 short stories and 13 novels during his writing career. Three of his works are published under the house name, Ellery Queen. Timothy Harrison was also a pseudonym for his work, Hot Summer.

Reviews

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

All three novels are worth reading. The first two are hindered by unsympathetic lesbian characters, which was probably typical for lesbian pulp novels of that time period. The third was the best, with likable characters, engaging plot, and crackling smart dialog. None of the novels offer graphic depictions of sexuality, or sleaze, and the lesbianism is mostly implied. Mr. Flora is clearly a talented author. Not sure how he ended up writing lesbian pulp fiction.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not "lesbian" literature. More a literary exploration of deep depression and drinking by women in unhappy and unhealthy woman-woman relationships they consider deviate.

Take Me Home starts to speak of seductive touch between women; and then breaks off with a fight. It ends with a man-woman kiss, promising "normalicy" in the straight-laced ethos of these books; but that may be an illusion like the middle of Desperate Asylum. Which also has a man with a heavy hang-up. The depictions of depression are EXCELLENT, which is no fun to read.

“And now, remembering deliberately after all this time, I am still sick and not cured. I am sick with the thought of gasping passion and the cruel hunger. Catharsis futile.”
“...my sickness is abhorrence and rejection of women in the basic function of woman, and that this abhorrence and rejection has become, through a kind of psychic diffusion or something, an abhorrence and rejection of life itself.”