Bone Horn - A Novel

By: Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain

Published by Catapult, 2026-06-30

A newly registered private investigator attempts to track down Alice B. Toklas’s reputed horn in this smart, hilarious, sexy, and unexpectedly poignant detective novel

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are the most famous married couple of Modernism, icons of literary queer history. But what if Alice had a secret? What if, underneath her thickly cultivated hair and low-brimmed hats, there was something sinister growing? What if, as Picasso claimed, Alice B. Toklas really did have a horn?

This is what the mysterious voice on the phone is asking. And our narrator, a newly registered private investigator, is in no position to hang up—she recently walked away from an exploitative job in academia, is bereaved following the sudden death of her partner, and has a kid to support. The case sounds ridiculous, but she needs the money. Okay, she tells the voice. I’ll find the horn. The job takes her from London to Paris to San Francisco, from a Hemingway’s kitchen table to a Beat-inspired hotel run by an investment bank. Just when she thinks the case is dead, that no horn exists, she finds herself knee-deep in trouble with someone hot on her heels . . .

At once a reimagining of the lone-wolf detective and a hilarious takedown of self-important scholarship, Bone Horn is a dexterous investigation of queerness, unbearable grief, and who has the right—and means—to rewrite history.