Mona of the Manor

A decade ago, Maupin said The Days of Anna Madrigal would be the ninth and final volume in his long-running “Tales of the City” series, but happily he has returned with a 10th, set in 1993, and it’s glorious. Mona Ramsey is now Lady Roughton and living in England, having married gay Lord Teddy to provide him with a U.S. green card. When he died, she inherited his palatial Easley House. There she and her adopted Aboriginal 26-year-old gay son, Wilfred, rent rooms to visiting tourists. Complications arise, as they always do in the “Tales” universe, when Mona’s biological parent Anna Madrigal and her best friend Michael Tolliver visit. And then there’s that dead body that is on the move. At one point, Michael calls his transcontinental visit “the melding of old memories and new discoveries.” This perfectly sums up Maupin’s 10th “Tales” novel. Maupin is a peerless visionary who created a queer community of friends decades ago and is still at the top of his game with this funny, endearing, and totally captivating literary escapade.