In Search of Pretty Young Black Men — Stanley Bennett Clay

Los Angeles has no ghettos, according to some. And that is nearly true. But even behind the sun-kissed façade of privilege in its Black upper middle class is a harsher reality....

So begins the tale of Dorian Moore, a seductive young man who provides comfort to the moneyed, the neglected, the lost, and the lonely in an elegant hilltop community in Southern California -- Maggie Lester Allegro among them.

Disillusioned by a loveless marriage, Maggie finds support in her small circle of women friends, and sexual healing in Dorian's arms. But the blessing brought by this pretty black man soon becomes a fatal curse for Maggie and her husband, Lamont. When Lamont -- the son of an influential member of the Baldwin Hills gentry -- seeks sexual solace outside the marriage, a series of terrible truths come to light...and soon he begins to crumble under the weight of his own family secrets and lies that threaten to shatter his carefully guarded life.

Poetically rendered and provocative, In Search of Pretty Young Black Men is an illuminating novel that challenges our notions of sex, success, prestige, and, most of all, love.