A Bag With No Secrets: A Novel

by Eric Patton

A Bag with No Secrets is the story of two gay loves in the life of Terry Devlin, a student at the University of Arizona in the 1950s. He remembers them when he is an elderly man dying in a Tucson hospice. The first was a wild, passionate, adolescent affair with Ian Tolson, a high-school football player. Ian moves away, leaving Terry disconsolate at a vulnerable time of his life. Ian’s unexpected return years later leads to Terry’s exposure to a series of robberies and murders, which nearly caused his death. His second love was with Kevin Morrison, an acerbic engineer of American Indian descent. Kevin, for his part, looks on Terry as only a friend. So Terry has to conceal his love, or risk his friendship. Kevin would never be able to return his affections, or so Terry thinks until one memorable night on a hike in the Santa Rita Mountains. There he learns the difference between love and infatuation.

270 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2008