SOURCE: Nava, Michael. Introduction to Finale, edited by Michael Nava, pp. 7-10. Boston: Alyson Publications, 1989.

In the following introduction to an anthology of crime-mystery-detective stories by gay and lesbian authors, Nava provides an overview of the selections included in the volume.

Though it is the bastard child of literature, the mystery has always attracted first-class writers. I came to mysteries in college through Jorge Luis Borges, whose ficciones frequently employed the conventions of the mystery for metaphysical ends. Indeed, one of the first mystery writers I read was G. K. Chesterton, to whose Father Brown stories Borges acknowledged his debt. The other mystery writer to whom I was initially exposed was Rex Stout who, on the whole, I preferred to Chesterton, because his stories were free of Chesterton's religious baggage.

This brings me to a related point about mystery writers. The best of them are respectful of the...