FRANK ANTHONY POLITO
BIO
An award-winning author and playwright, and screenwriter, Frank holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon and a BFA in Theatre from Wayne State. Published novels include BAND FAGS! (2008 "Best Fiction" - InsightOut Book Club), DRAMA QUEERS! (2009 Lambda Literary Award), LOST IN THE '90s, THE SPIRIT OF DETROIT, and the "Domestic Partners in Crime" cozy mystery series including RENOVATED TO DEATH, REHEARSED TO DEATH, HAUNTED TO DEATH, and DRAGGED TO DEATH.
Frank's plays ANOTHER DAY ON WILLOW ST and BFs! (based on his novel BAND FAGS!) have been produced in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Omaha, and Annapolis. His other writing has been featured in Instinct magazine and online at The Advocate.com. He has also been a regular contributor to the popular New York City lifestyle blog Kenneth in the 212.
Frank grew up in the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park and currently resides in Pleasant Ridge with his partner, Craig Bentley, and their two dogs, Clyde and Jack.
ON SALE 05.05.26!
On sale: May 05, 2026
When a charity drag extravaganza takes a deadly turn, home renovation stars Peter “PJ” Penwell and JP Broadway discover that not all backstage drama is just for show...
Invited to participate in the glittering event, Peter and his real-life Domestic Partner in Crime, JP, expect good cheer, friendly competition, and plenty of sequins. Instead, the celebration comes to a screeching halt after one of the show’s brightest stars, Melody Mansion, is found dead in her dressing room—smothered by her own wig.
Suspicion quickly falls on the victim’s drag mother, Harmony House, a beloved local legend whose larger-than-life presence has earned her both devoted fans and bitter enemies in the Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods. Certain their good friend and neighbor is innocent, PJ and JP once again trade power tools for police work as they dig into a tight-knit drag community where rivalries run deep, secrets are well-hidden, and everybody has something to lose.
Between rehearsals, backstage chaos, and a growing list of suspects, the Domestic Partners must uncover the truth before the killer takes their final bow.
August 20, 2024
It's Hart to Hart via HGTV on All Hallows' Eve, as partners and home renovation hosts Peter Penwell and JP Broadway try not to flip when their newest fixer-upper is rumored to be a haunted house . . .
Kicking off season three of their hit reality TV show Domestic Partners is a home renovation project with an irresistible hook. Woods Hall is a lavish 1913 manor home in the Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods, once belonging to the town’s founding family. It also comes with its own ghost.
Twenty-five years ago during a Halloween night party, automotive heiress and beauty queen Emma Wheeler-Woods, wearing a white Princess Diana wedding gown as a costume, fell from a third-floor balcony to her death. Or was she pushed?
Fiona Forrest recently inherited the home after learning she was Emma’s daughter, and she and her fiancé have hired the Domestic Partners to restore the family property to its original splendor. But ghostly sightings, injured crew, secret passageways, locked rooms, and sabotage beg the question: Is the place actually haunted? And perhaps more practically, was Fiona’s mother murdered?
Hustling to have work finished in time to shoot the finale on Halloween—the anniversary of Emma’s mysterious death—do Peter and JP have a ghost of a chance of also solving a cold case from a quarter of a century ago before someone else takes a fall?
May 31, 2023
Hart to Hart via HGTV, this fabulous new quozy (queer cozy) mystery series by award-winning author and playwright Frank Anthony Polito’s features a gay couple who solve crimes while renovating houses in suburban Detroit as part of their hit reality show Domestic Partners. Now, their foray into community theater proves a major risk thanks to some deadly improvisation . . .
Peter’s first play is having its world premiere at Pleasant Woods’s community theater. His handsome one and only, JP, has the lead. Rehearsals have begun. And New York City’s award-winning, hotshot helmer, Xander Sherwood Deva, is directing. Unfortunately the controlling, arrogant, poison-barbed, egomaniacal diva has everyone on edge. No wonder he finallypushes someone over it . . .
Xander is found strangled to death in the same extra-long, imported cashmere scarf he’s been brandishing like a boa ever since he arrived. In the name of making art he’s burned a lot of bridges and made a lot of enemies but which one wanted to bring down the curtain on him?
As they say in the theater: the show must go on. But not before amateur sleuths Peter and JP become Domestic Partners in Crime and try to solve this deadly real-life drama ahead of opening night.
May 31, 2022
It’s Hart to Hart via HGTV in award-winning author and playwright Frank Anthony Polito’s fabulous new cozy mystery series featuring a gay couple who solve crimes while renovating houses in suburban Detroit as part of their hit reality show Domestic Partners.
Real-life domestic partners and stars and producers of the new hit reality home renovation show Domestic Partners, bestselling mystery author Peter “PJ” Penwell and actor JP Broadway are enjoying work and life in their sleepy Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods—until a suspicious death makes an unscripted appearance…
After a successful first season of Domestic Partners chronicling the renovation of their historic Craftsman Colonial, Peter and JP are taking on a renovation of a local Tudor Revival inherited by identical twin brothers Terry and Tom Cash. But linoleum floors and a pink-tiled bathroom aren’t the only unwelcome surprises
awaiting inside the house…
Just as the show is set to start filming, Peter and JP discover Tom Cash dead at the foot of the house’s staircase. And when the police ruling changes from accidental death to homicide, the list of suspects grows fast. Could the killer be the crabby next-door-neighbor, the Realtor ex-boyfriend, the bartender ex-boyfriend, the other, much younger, ex-boyfriend, or even renovation-reluctant brother, Terry? And what’s that awful smell coming from the basement?
Now Peter’s mystery writer skills, and JP’s experience as the former star of a cop show, will be put to the test—as will their relationship while they uncover the secrets of the house and its owners. With a killer on the loose, this is one fixer upper that may prove deadly…
CRITICAL PRAISE FOR RENOVATED TO DEATH
"The first Domestic Partners mystery is a winner—bring on more adventures in murder and home design."
—Janet Webb via Criminal Element
"Renovated to Death by Frank Anthony Polito might just be the perfect cozy mystery."
—PopSugar
"Playwright and novelist Polito’s (Drama Queers! ) new series is built on a solid foundation that consists of an eclectic cast of characters...a close-knit community setting in the form of a posh suburb of Detroit, and a leisurely paced plot with a killer twist."
—Library Journal
"HGTV shows leave me completely cold, but even I think this book sounds like the coziest thing imaginable."
—BookPage, Most Anticipated Mysteries of 2022
Upcoming Events
- FREE EVENT - Form and Function: Author Visit with Frank Anthony PolitoThu, May 28Troy Public Library
