Letter: Detectives come out

Sir: Stephen Knight is wrong to state ("The strange case of the missing gay detectives", 3 August) that there is a "near absence" of gay crime fiction. The heterosexual novelist Jonathan Kellerman's cop, Milo, one of the most famous characters in contemporary crime fiction, is gay. Many gay male novelists, too, have been producing queered versions of this popular genre.

Indeed, St Martin's Press publishes a whole series of "Stonewall Inn Mysteries" with gay detectives. Professor Knight should begin by reading the novels of Michael Nava.

GREGORY WOODS

Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies

Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham