Lambda Literary Award Winner: LGBT Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror
Ken Nicholson never saw himself returning to New Orleans, but the attack on his college-age son has drawn him. Not just to his home and to his family, but to the mistakes of his own tortured life. Divorced and now fully admitting to his homosexuality, Ken must now confront an evil he thought was long buried. A killer has taken his son and has threatened to take even more: his ex-wife, his former lover, and the very notion of his past. Years ago, the mysterious owner of a club named Wonderland claimed Ken as his own, only to die in violent fashion. Today, a killer knows far too much about that tragic night at Wonderland, leaving Ken desperate for answers, desperate to stay alive.
Review
Like a twisted dream you can’t shake, Dust of Wonderland stays with you long after you put it down. Ken Nicholson returns to New Orleans as a handsome man with a dark past, an ex-wife, two grown children, and a jilted gay lover. The reason for his return? His son is in intensive care following a brutal attack. Bewildered and grasping for answers, we are taken to a time decades before when Ken was a stunning teen. Consumed by a powerful man he was sucked into a perverse world called Wonderland, a place where the flesh of young men was bought and sold. Layer after layer is peeled away in this dark tale to reveal a (possibly) supernatural deviant seeking to ruin Ken’s life some 30 years after he first stepped into Wonderland. I can’t give away too many details because it is in the details that this story really shines.
Lee Thomas has written a genuinely creepy and gripping hybrid of a novel. Combining horror with romance and drama he takes us on a thrilling psychotic trip through the gruesome streets of New Orleans that requires devotion to the very last page. The trip is well worth the effort and you will be rewarded with a delightful chill that runs down your spine and makes you question what is real and what is just in your mind.
