While Flabbergasted focused on Brody Norris’s backstory, Inside Dumont surveys that of his partner and husband, Marson Miles, before and after Brody came into his life. This novel in stories focuses on the people of Dumont, Michigan who are central to his or Brody’s life: reporter Glee Savage; wealthy widow Mary Questman; “Karastan King” Walter Zakarin; and Brody’s bitter quasi-cousin, Allison, who harbors a hidden lust for him, unaware of his sexual orientation. Brody’s first marriage, to the much older Lloyd Washington, appears in several stories, including why the union ended and what brought Brody to Michigan.

But the book ultimately belongs to Marson, laying the foundation from his unhappy heterosexual marriage to his joyous union with Brody. Michael Craft’s wit and love builds brick-by-brick the underpinning of their deep and lasting love.