By Jeff Stookey

Medicine for the Blues explores the complexities of gender and sexuality through the historical lens of the early 1920s—a time of jazz, fascination with Freud, and the growing influence of the KKK. The trilogy tells a touching gay love story set against the dramatic backdrop of this influential era. Acquaintance Book 1 opens in Portland, Oregon, where a homosexual surgeon, Carl Holman, meets an ambitious young jazz piano player, Jimmy Harper, who is questioning his own sexuality, and they struggle with social conventions and widespread political repression. Chicago Blues Book 2 tells the story of Jimmy Harper’s adventures in Chicago where he descends into the jazz underworld and becomes entangled with a sinister mob boss and a black drag performer. Dangerous Medicine Book 3 follows Carl Holman’s struggles to navigate his medical career in the face of social and personal obstacles from the KKK, society, and other dangers.