Fear No More

A journalist on holiday in a small French village in the 1950s discovers an enigmatic memorial plaque, dedicated to a British soldier who died in World War II "and to his black cat whom he loved". Intrigued by the curious inscription and sensing a story, he sets out to uncover the young man's fate, but he quickly finds that no one in the village wants to talk about it. All he is able to learn is that the young officer's mutilated body was found on a rubbish heap, riddled full of German bullets. As he follows the clues and unravels the mystery of the young soldier's life and death, a terrible and tragic story unfolds, a tale of bravery and heroism, of love, deception, and betrayal that will shake him to his very core. Michael Nelson (1921-1990) is best remembered for his gay classic A Room in Chelsea Square (1958), but his final novel, Fear No More (1989), is arguably his best, a riveting historical mystery that will have readers turning the pages impatiently to learn the fate of the young officer and his beloved cat Blackie. Largely overlooked when it was first released by a British small press, Nelson's novel is published here in the U.S. for the first time and should lead to a reappraisal of the work of this important but neglected gay novelist.