A killing cure

Ellen Hart

Book - 1993

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Review by Booklist Review

Twin Cities restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is a grown-up Nancy Drew, with an aging Saab replacing Nancy's roadster and witty, wisecracking theater director Cordelia Thorne supplanting the pedantic George as sidekick. Like Nancy's, Jane's father is a lawyer, one who, in this, the fourth of Hart's Lawless mysteries, is hired to defend a disgruntled young man accused of killing a prominent foundation head and prestigious women's club director. When a second club member, the aging and slightly fey granddaughter of the founder, is also found dead, under peculiar circumstances, remaining board members ask Jane for help. A secret, coded ledger, stolen jewels, hidden staircases, drugged drinks, blackmail, and kidnapping keep the plot boiling. Suspects also abound: club members, relatives, even two degree candidates at the University of Minnesota. Jane's love interest, a Minneapolis city council member and candidate to replace the club's deceased board members, further confounds the action in this top-notch mystery which upholds the venerable whodunit tradition of maximal suspense and character development but minimal gore. ~--Marie Kuda

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Hart, whose Stage Fright is a 1992 Lamda nominee for Best Lesbian Mystery, hits her stride with this lively tale that follows Minneapolis restaurateur/sleuth Jane Lawless as she delves into the secrets of the prestigious Amelia Gower Women's Club. Death has claimed two directors of the philanthropic Gower Foundation, also founded by Amelia. Charlotte Fortnum is strangled during an evening walk and Rose Gower, a descendant of Amelia, takes a fatal fall down the stairs at the club. The police arrest Emery Gower, recently fired by Charlotte from his job at the foundation, for the strangling and rule Rose's death accidental. But board members Mae Williams and Miriam Cipriani suspect foul play and ask Jane to investigate. Once she agrees, however, they prove remarkably obstructive. Dorrie Harris, a Gower club member whom Jane has been dating, aspires to a now-vacant board position and discourages Jane's snooping, while Cordelia Thorn, Jane's colorful sleuthing partner and new club member, is ready to forge ahead. Jane and Cordelia make a successful duo as entertainers and investigators, resolving all mysteries but this small one: While Jane probes the club's nooks and crannies, who's running her restaurant? (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Minneapolis restaurant owner and part-time sleuth Jane Lawless ( Hallowed Murder ) interrupts her romance with councilwoman Dorrie in order to find a ledger and jewels stolen after the ``accidental'' death of the director of a charitable foundation. Lawless grills suspects for information, judges their reactions, and intuits their honesty. She then reviews her gleanings with her best friend, Cordelia, a witty and flamboyant theater person. An old mansion used as a woman's club provides the focal point for much of the action, while subplots involve ex-lovers, family secrets, and wrongful accusations. Strong characters, setting, and investigation: a great choice. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Lesbian feminist restaurateur Jan Lawless (Hallowed Murder, 1989, etc.), whose lover Dorrie and best friend Cordelia are members of Minneapolis's Amelia Gower Women's Club, is asked to solve the murders of two of the Gower's four board members, Charlotte and Rose--and she's soon racing along secret passages in the club's headquarters in pursuit of a killer, a ghost, a missing ledger (in code), and two valuable jewels. Did the deaths hinge on the outcome of the board's vote either to fund experimental AIDS drugs or train commandos to monitor the activities of anti-abortion terrorists? Jane will lose a lover, and almost her life, before all the red herrings have been caught--including an obnoxious young man defended by Jane's lawyer-dad--and before one murder is revealed to be a nasty accident, and the perp of the other stages a big blowout up at Sawmill Lake. Stodgy writing, silly plotting, and lots of feminist rhetoric- -with interruptions, now and then, for one of Cordelia's eating binges.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.