Last Call

A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York

By: Elon Green

Narrated by: David Pittu

2021 NPR Best Book of the Year

"This true-crime gem - Green's first full-length work, sensitively and incisively narrated by Pittu - is an illuminating and deeply humanizing testament to victims overlooked by the media and forgotten in cultural memory.... An insightful and essential conversation among author, narrator, and producer concludes this highly recommended recording." (Booklist, starred review)

*This program includes a bonus conversation with the author*

The gripping true story, told here for the first time, of the Last Call Killer and the gay community of New York City that he preyed upon.

The Townhouse Bar, midtown, July 1992: The piano player seems to know every song ever written, the crowd belts out the lyrics to their favorites, and a man standing nearby is drinking a Scotch and water. The man strikes the piano player as forgettable.

He looks bland and inconspicuous. Not at all what you think a serial killer looks like. But that’s what he is, and tonight, he has his sights set on a gray haired man. He will not be his first victim.

Nor will he be his last.

The Last Call Killer preyed upon gay men in New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s and had all the hallmarks of the most notorious serial killers. Yet because of the sexuality of his victims, the skyhigh murder rates, and the AIDS epidemic, his murders have been almost entirely forgotten.

This gripping true-crime narrative tells the story of the Last Call Killer and the decades-long chase to find him. And at the same time, it paints a portrait of his victims and a vibrant community navigating threat and resilience.

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books

"Green’s sensitive portraits of the victims, and his deeply researched re-creation of an epoch of gay history, provide its soul. Inherently shocking material needs no dramatization, and David Pittu’s understated narration highlights the tragedy and horror of these crimes. “Last Call” is the kind of book that keeps you wide awake all night turning the pages. As an audiobook, it will keep you wide awake all day as you drive, hoping you don’t get wherever you’re going before it ends." (New York Time)

"In this astonishing and powerful work of nonfiction, Green meticulously reports on a series of baffling and brutal crimes targeting gay men. It is an investigation filled with twists and turns, but this is much more than a compelling true crime story. Green has shed light on those whose lives for too long have been forgotten, and rescued an important part of American history." (David Grann, number one New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon)

DAVID PITTU is a two-time Tony Award nominee, as well as the award-winning narrator of countless audiobooks, ranging in genre from young adult (Scholastic’s 39 Clues series) to spy fiction (Olen Steinhauer’s The Last Tourist and Milo Weaver series) to the contemporary fiction of authors such as Jeffrey Eugenides (The Marriage Plot) and Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch) and many more.

Pittu received the Audie Award for Best Male Solo Narration for The Goldfinch, which also received the Audie for Best Literary Fiction.

Not only a veteran theater actor, he works regularly in film and television. He lives in New York City.

©2021 Elon Green (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

NPR Best Book of the Year, 2021

Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominee, 2022

Buzzfeed Best Books of the Year, 2021

An astonishing untold tale & top notch narration.

I really had no expectations of this story, but right from the beginning, my attention was captured. It was a tale where the crimes are touched on but Elon Green cared for the victims and the routines of the victims. There is a sensitivity and compassion about the lives of victims which is something that is almost never done in true crime. David Pittu is outstanding, and he knows how to make a story come alive. It is such an astonishing combination. Superb writing and peerless narration with social history and sociological insights into victims and criminal takes you there. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Very timely reminder of the risks of pickups...

Given the arrest on April 3rd of 3 men accused of drugging and murdering men, they met at gay bars in New York City. this book is very timely. Very well written, researched and performed. I don't usually consume this kind of literature but I found it compelling.

Thoughtful viewpoint

Very interesting profile of the victims of a serial killer. It took me several starts to get into it, but the 3rd time was the charm.

Great story and book, needs better voice editing

Great story telling! Vividly tells bits and pieces of the lives of victims and their families. Grabs you by the heart. The performance is great up until the last hour. Sounds like they took 3 takes and constantly switch them out with one another. It’s very distracting. Other than that, highly recommend.

Great Listen, Excellent Narration

Fascinating listen and narrator David Pittu is brilliant. Highly recommended and do yourself a favor and look into other books narrated by Pittu.

Excellent

Excellent deep dive on a case in which the surface had never even been scratched. Important also is the author’s belief that it’s the victims who matter in these tragedies, not the murderers.

Excellent Presentation that honors the victims

Beautifully haunting narration. Author presentation is so sensitive to the gay community you’d think he was one of us. It made this 57 year old gay man realize I was exhibiting the same bias toward the straight community that I accuse them of.

very interesting

It brings you to a harsh time. but definitely a good listen. the detailing is gruesome in some cases.

great

Wonderfully done narrative about a era in time that has been long forgotten. The Author very clearly did his research.

Well done.

Fantastic context building; if Green ever decides to write a book about the queer piano bars of New York in the 90’s, I’ll read it.

While I’m pretty critical of the skeevier side of true crime I’m also starting to grow skeptical of the trend towards demonstratively focusing on the victims. It’s getting performative and there’s usually a lot of gross purity politics involved. But this is different. Green is feeling this deeply and it resonates. It’s sincere and hard-working and not really like anything I’ve read in a while. Green draws a picture of a killer in profile, like a silhouette, omitting anything about him not relevant to a victim or witness, while painting every thing around him in rich detail. It’s clever and sensitive and very much what I want from true crime.