Illinois Authors

St. Martin's Press, New York : ©1989.

When a gay high school teacher starts investigating a colleague's murder, he finds beneath the calm veneer of his Midwestern suburb a seamy underbelly of gambling, prostitution, and child abuse.

Independently Published 2024

Alien Quest is book one of the Alien Danger trilogy. It is a story of true love and high adventure. An alien from another planet lands on Earth in search of an escaped mad scientist from his home system. With the help of an earthling, Mike Carlson, the two embark on a fantastic journey to save our planet.

Independently Published 2024

Kidnapped to the other side of the cosmos Joe and Mike must deal with the homophobia and dangers of a world where right wing religions is triumphant. A story of true love and high adventure set among the stars.

MLR Press, LLC 2018

Roger and Steve are off to the prom and a night out together. While watching the stars traverse the desert sky, they stumble upon a horrific crime and are soon involved in danger and intrigue. The lives of openly gay high school students can be a whole lot better than they used to be, and a whole lot worse. They must uncover who is out to get them before they themselves become victims.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1995.

Another Dead Republican is a mystery of familial destruction set in a world of violent intrigue and deadly ambition. A ringing phone in the middle of the night set Tom Mason and his lover, baseball player, Scott Carpenter on the trail of a vicious killer in a suburban enclave. Tom's brother-in-law has been murdered. Tom rushes to be with his beloved sister. The dead man was the son of the vicious Republican that runs a county. The ruling cabal will stop at nothing to destroy people and lives that get in their way of accumulating more useless wealth.

St. Martin's Press, New York : ©1995.

Two high-school boys from prominent families are found murdered in Chicago, and gay police detective Paul Turner and his partner are assigned the case.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1999, ©1998.

A PTA election ends in murder after fighting erupts, provoked by parents opposing gay teachers. The victim is one of the anti-gays and Tom Mason, teacher, turns sleuth to find the killer.

Paul Turner returns. In his first appearance since 2007, this gay Chicago detective and father of two sons gets caught in a tangle of intrigue and corruption. A brutal Chicago cop is found murdered at a gay leather festival. Turner, plus his police department partner, Buck Fenwick are assigned the case. Through a rising tide of danger, they need to find the truth among police corruption and cover ups. Some top cops and A-list leather queens are among those whose lies and fears drive the web of desperation and deceit that Turner and his partner must unravel.

MLR Press 2018

This is the story of a Christmas Eve and the travails of a tiny harmonica alone and lost in the deep dark on the back of his shelf in a store on the Isle of Misfit Toys, and about a little boy frightened, alone, and lost from his family on Christmas Eve. It is a story of warmth, compassion, and joy to be read by the whole family.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2003.

Boys4U is the world's most popular singing group - at least among teenaged girls - and they have closed out their sold-out world tour with a series of shows in Chicago's brand new arena. The premier group of the inexplicably popular

Gay detective Paul Turner investigates the death of a male supermodel who fell to his death from a hotel window in Chicago. Suspects range from jealous lovers to financial interests in the fashion industry.

From the Publisher: Tom Mason, former Chicago area high school teacher, recently made a public splash by marrying his long-term lover, former professional baseball player Scott Carpenter. After the hoopla surrounding Scott's public coming out and, of course, the marriage, the couple are in dire need of a quiet vacation-somewhere far from the fans, the paparazzi and the general noise of Chicago. Escaping to the privately-held Aegean island of Korkasi-a resort with twenty-two separate villas for those desiring, and who can afford, absolute privacy. But first a building storm traps them-and the others-on the island, cutting them off entirely from the outside world. Then the current owner of the island is found murdered, his body lying on the floor of Tom and Scott's villa. As the storm gathers strength and begins to ravage the island, the guests and employees are being killed off by a person or persons unknown. Trapped on the island with no hope of escape, Tom and Scott must uncover and stop the murderer before everyone dies.

From a Lambda Literary Award–winning author, a murder mystery “offers some insights into the plight of gay teenagers as well as an engaging whodunit” (Publishers Weekly).Chicago high school teacher Tom Mason is guilted into volunteering a few hours a week at a local gay services clinic. Since he finds the bitter in-fighting at the organization to be intolerable, and the head of the clinic to be downright poisonous, Tom does his hours on early Saturday morning before anyone else arrives and avoids most of the office politics.But his quiet Saturday goes quickly awry when two gay teens, in a particularly difficult situation, seek him out for counseling early to avoid being seen by anyone else. After they leave, Tom decides to tidy up the cramped, disordered office and file some of the teetering piles that are practically everywhere. Filing turns out to be a surprisingly gruesome task, however, when in one of the filing cabinet drawers Tom finds the severed head of the director of the clinic. The director, called Snarly Bitch behind his back because of his unpleasant demeanor, had a particularly long enemies’ list and Tom himself is not particularly choked up about his untimely demise. But with a long suspect list, a fairly indifferent police force, and the welfare of some of the clinic’s youthful charges on the line, Tom himself must sort out the murder before an innocent takes the fall for this very unusual crime.

MLR Press 2020

Two gay teen boys in love. Both have familial woes including virulent homophobia from at least one parent in each family. Then their school is attacked and even though they can alibi each other, many of those around them think of them as the most likely suspects. They take an active role in finding out who really did attack the school. All this set against the back drop of their love.

MLR Press, LLC 2016

Two high school boys try to survive amid death and danger in the desert, while hoping for the possibility of first love. Shane Semereau wants to be left alone to read his books and carve his wood sculptures in the warm desert. His life is a swarm of confusion and violence, but he wants to be a force in making the world a gentle place. He grasps at those dreams. Cory Garcia is a bundle of electric energy who lashes out at everyone and everything, but loves to let his mind go in the world of dance. Amidst great danger and looming violence they find each other and unite against all that is arrayed against them at every turn. Published by MLR Press, LLC

Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter's wedding went off without a hitch, but the discovery of a dead body at the reception casts a pall over the event. It gets worse when the body turns out to be an ex-boyfriend of Tom's and he becomes the prime suspect.

Murder rudely interrupts the Chicago police detective's annual fishing trek to Canada. Turner has rented two houseboats on Lake of the Woods with his two sons; his lover, Ben; and the family of his detective partner, Buck Fenwick. Though longtime summer visitors, the Chicagoans soon become targets of antigay harassment. When they report a fight between bully Scarth Krohn's gang and First Nation (Canadian Indian) kids, the local police chief sides with the bullies.

MLR Press, LLC Albion, NY : 2016

Ripped from his homeland, Adrian must fight to adjust to an entirely new way of life. Once a prince, now a slave, Adrian must struggle to readjust and survive in a world unknown to him. He's got escape on the mind, but his new Master is proving to be a bit of a distraction. What happens when you find yourself falling for the elf who took everything from you? Magnus is over being overlooked and Prince Adrian is the key to all of his problems. He's just a bit more than Magnus was expecting. Well, a lot more. Adrian is turning his entire world upside down and he might be more than just a means to an end.

Paul Turner is a widowed father of two teenaged boys, one of whom has spina bifida, rapidly approaching middle age, and used to dealing gracefully with all the challenges these things entail. Turner, however, is slightly different from others in his situation - he's openly gay and a homicide detective for the Chicago Police Department.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2000.

First bombs explode at the Chicago health clinic where his lover Tom Mason was working, and then baseball player Scott Carpenter starts receiving threats that he's next.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1994.

Did someone in Chicago hate acity alderman enough to kill him? Chicago polic e detective Paul Turner is assigned the case and discovers that jealous professors and old-guard politicians have guilty secrets to protect. And Turner is not your ordinary cop. He's a widower who happens to be gay and trying to raise his two teen-aged sons.

A baseball player publicly announces his homosexuality, provoking the ire of his hometown in Georgia and an altercation with the sheriff. When the sheriff is murdered, suspicion falls on the player and his boyfriend, and the two must find the murderer. By the author of Another Dead Teenager.

Mlr Pr Albion, NY : 2014

In an unsafe world, death and danger stalk gay teens, Roger Cook and Steve Koemer. Roger Cook is in the middle of his senior year when Kyle Davis, the most picked on kid in his high school commits suicide. Roger agrees to write an article on Kyle for the school newspaper. As he gathers information, Roger realizes the dead boy was gay and may have been murdered. Gay himself, Roger wants to find out the truth, but this leads him to danger and the possibility of love. Roger opens himself to even greater risk while trying to make those around him safe.

Tired of the bickering and pettiness of the faculty meetings at Grover Cleveland High School, teacher Tom Mason sneaks out for a short break, only to return to stumble upon the corpse of one of his colleagues, finds himself the prime suspect in the killing, and enlists the aid of Scott Carpenter, his partner-for-life, to uncover the true murderer.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1992.

When right-wing televangelist Bruce Mucklewrath is attacked and his daughter is killed, Chicago police detective Paul Turner suspects a conspiracy of vengeance against right-wing bigots perpetrated by the homosexual community--of which he is a member.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1991.

Tom Mason and his lover, Scott Carpenter, are asked to look into the death of Father Sebastian, a priest well-known for his work with the gay community. Very soon, Tom and Scott are plunged into ecclesiastical intrigue, the hidden gay underground of Chicago, and the tragedies caused by a hypocritical church.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1993.

The Principal Cause of Death is the next entry in Mark Richard Zubro's Tom and Scott series. When gay high School teacher Tom Mason is accused of murdering the school principal, Tom and his partner, Scott Carpenter, need to catch the real murderer and clear Tom's name. Kirkus Reviews raves, "The school politics are dead-on" in this fourth installment in Zubro's Lamda Literary Award-winning series.

MLR Press [Place of publication not identified], 2017

Rudolph must find the true message of Christmas to save Santa and the holiday for the world. During the frantic search for the missing Santa, we learn the heart and soul about what is important in the way we deal with each other, including among the magical reindeer, elves, and people - all the denizens of the North Pole. Who they are and how they care for each other leads to the truth and about what we all need to value.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1998, ©1997.

"The last thing Chicago Police Detective Paul Turner wants to do on New Year's Day is investigate a murder. But when the body is that of a conservative, homophobic judge and it is found outside a popular gay nightclub, the task takes on a new urgency for him. Now Turner must unravel the threads connecting the unlikely victim to his unsuspected murder scene, and look for answers in the most unusual places."--Page 4 of cover.

St. Martin's Press, New York : ©1990.

"One would think teaching would be a quiet profession. But not in Chicago, thinks high school teacher Tom Mason, when he hears that one of his students has been accused of killing his girlfriend. As a friend of the boy's family, Tom is asked to help clear him, and the more he probes, the more it seems that something sinister is going on in the usually quiet suburbs of Chicago. With the aid of his lover Scott Carpenter, a professional baseball player, the two set out to discover what really happened that night."--Page 4 of cover.