Lee Lynch. The Raid. Bold Strokes Press, 2012. Paperback. 310p. $16.95. 978-1-60282-753-0.

In this novel, Lynch follows the lives of The Old Town Tavern regulars in 1961 Massachusetts ”their stories of jail time, hospitalizations, emotional upheaval, and the publishing of names in the paper which leads to loss of job, family, and home” after a raid filled with police brutality.

The author gives a voice to people who experienced these atrocities by not sweeping these raids under the carpet. The after effects are more horrendous than the actual event, including both the physical pain, and, more importantly, the emotional pain and loss.

As a result, strangers come together into a family, drawn together by a safe place and then by a desire to save this place despite their lingering fears. After secrets are exposed, members come together to support each other, lovers bond and separate, relationships blossom and die.

Although fictional, these events could have happened to anyone who found a home and family in a neighborhood gay bar before Stonewall and even today where intolerance still abounds.

This book is a must read, not only for the relationships and the love, but the historical importance of the brutal tearing apart of these “families” and their lives.

Reviewer: s.n.