Bright, ambitious, handsome Ross Ohrenstedt is a highflier in the fashionable field of Queer Studies, flourishing amid the backstabbing, resentments and petty intrigues of academia. After taking up a prestigious university post in Los Angeles, he has been appointed to oversee the collection of the papers and works of Damon Von Slyke, leading light of the gay literary salon known as the Purple Circle.
Sorting through the paper, Ross stumbles across a 'lost' work by an unknown author. His quest to identify the mystery writer and achieve the glory of scholastic tenure unveils the lives and wild times of a group of writers who in the 1970s and 1980s broke new ground in the ceration of a gay literary sensibility. But the truth contained within The Book of Lies is even more surprising...
With sharp wit, powerfully unexpected revelations and a luscious sense of place and character, Felice Picano explores the ties of love, friendship and betrayal with rewarding depth and emotional honesty.

'An absorbing Henry James-style comedy of manners' - Scott Bradfiel, Mail On Sunday

'A throughly engrossing tale of literary and academic intrigue...fascinating' - Gay Times