Thomas Lynch arrives in Idyll, Connecticut in the summer of 1997 to start his job as the new police chief. Idyll is a small town with a low crime rate and a bar that doubles as a laundromat. Chief Lynch is prepared for boredom. But Cecilia North turns up murdered on the golf course before he can even get a freakin’ nameplate on his office door.

The Idyll police force doesn’t know what to do with murder. They’re used to traffic citations and occasional criminal mischief. Lynch could help by admitting that he had a chance encounter with the victim mere hours before she was killed. But if he tells his detectives about their meeting, he’ll reveal his biggest secret—he’s gay. So Lynch works angles of the case on his own, winning himself no friends in the Idyll Police Department.  

Thomas Lynch is a man trying to reconcile his passion for police work with his homosexuality. The Idyll PD is rife with casual homophobia, and coming out can cost him his job. He’s also dealing with his former NYPD partner’s death. This combination of fear and grief has Lynch in a stranglehold. He has no clear path forward, and he can’t let his personal issues interfere with the murder case.

But also Lynch has needs. You know? And even attempting to get laid can make his circumstances substantially worse.

IDYLL THREATS is the first in the three-book Thomas Lynch series by Stephanie Gayle. Lynch’s deceit and guilt create a constant undercurrent of self-hatred that is its own character. IDYLL THREATS is a slow-burning police procedural that puts the human condition to the forefront.