Three men. Two gay, one straight. Two searching for meaning in the face of loss, one searching for the heart of masculinity. What awakens between them will change their lives forever. Picano, the author of such epic-scaled novels as Like People in History and The Book of Lies, narrows his focus here to six months in the life of Ray Henriques, a successful Manhattan record producer whose life is thrown dramatically out of balance. Based loosely on events the author himself experienced before relocating from New York to Los Angeles in the mid 1990s, the narrative unearths a sometimes jolting examination of how loss can awaken dormant desires and postponed dreams. Endings lead to beginnings, appearances do not match reality, and love can harden hearts as surely as it can expand them. Onyx is a gripping, suspenseful, romantic, and erotic journey to the heart of expectation and beyond into the sometimes harsh, often warm light of reality.