A cinematic, razor-sharp novel following a backlot fixer’s daring investigation into the suspicious death of a closeted Black actor within the glamorous world of Hollywood, from the bestselling author of My Government Means to Kill Me

Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood’s young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios’s ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier’s burgeoning success. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations.

But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant—Skyline’s designated backlot fixer who helps the studio’s stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible—is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death.

Written as part-confessional, part-cris de coeur from Aaron’s panoramic lens, There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood is a searing portrait of the movie industry as a manicured minefield and a compelling journey into the queer history of Los Angeles.

I received an advance audio copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

This was an interesting look at the history of gay men in Hollywood, and especially the history of gay Black men in Hollywood, which is a corner of the past we don’t hear much about. I enjoyed it and I appreciated the rich history packed into these pages, but I wish it had gone even deeper into the characters.

Xavier Barlow is a young Black actor in late 1950s Hollywood, one of the stars Skyline Studios is building up to compete with the rise of Sidney Poitier. He’s polished, charming, and exactly the kind of star the studio system wants. His career takes off fast, but the studio doesn’t want the public to know that he’s gay. The other key figure is Aaron Toussaint, the man Skyline pays to keep its stars’ personal lives quiet, especially the parts that involve other men. Xavier dies young, right when his star is brightest, and the book is told from Aaron’s perspective years later as he decides he’s done protecting the men who were really responsible for what happened to Xavier.

The characters are all fantastic and well-drawn. Xavier’s sex appeal oozed off the page, and Aaron’s voice has a sharpness to it that fits a man who has spent decades cleaning up after other people and watching the industry chew through Black gay men.

Where this book really shines is in the history. Newson weaves together the stories of well-known Black Hollywood figures from the fifties and sixties with the gay history that has been buried for years. Everyone has heard of Stonewall. Hardly anyone hears about The Black Cat Tavern on New Year’s Eve, 1967, where one of the first major LGBTQIA+ demonstrations in this country actually took place, a couple of years before Stonewall. This is just one of the significant historical events that the book brings back into the light and I really appreciated that.

While I enjoyed the book, I wanted more. For me, the book ended up reading more like a high-level history than the deep character study I was hoping for. I really liked these characters and cared about their relationships. The bones of who they were were there. I just wanted to spend more time with them in their day-to-day lives. I wanted to go deeper. The book moves fast and covers a lot of ground, but the pace meant we kept skimming over moments I wanted to spend more time in. The book is just over three hundred pages, and honestly, I think it could have been longer if we’d gotten further into these characters’ lives. That said, the fact that I closed the book wanting more is a real testament to Newson as a writer.

I listened to this one, and Jelani Alladin’s narration was wonderful. He has a beautifully rich voice that really elevated the production. He brought a lived-in weight to Aaron in particular that made some of the harder material really land.

Ultimately, there’s a lot to learn in this book, and even though I wish I’d gotten to go a little deeper into the lives of the characters, I still enjoyed my time with them and appreciated the history lessons and Newson’s attention to detail. If you love a piece of fiction that’s also doing the work of pulling forgotten history into view, especially Black gay history, this is absolutely worth your time.