Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After discovering a sorority sister drowned near her alma mater, restaurateur Jane Lawless embarks on an investigation to untangle the events that led to Allison Lord's death. Because little evidence exists, the police assume Allison committed suicide; but Jane is somehow convinced that the young woman was murdered. This debut mystery ambitiously raises such issues as fundamentalism, homosexuality, bigotry and psychological torment within the family--it is virtually a novel of ideas. And for the most part, the plot is deftly paced, with occasional snags. But when the murderer is revealed, even though the identity comes as a surprise, the character is among the least developed, inspired or provocative in Hart's cast--so outlandish a culprit that the reader is left unmoved. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A preachy (mostly lesbian issues) first novel centered on the Kappa Alpha Sigma (KAS) sorority on the University of Minnesota campus. When Jane Lawless, alumni advisor to KAS, finds Allison Lord, the social chairman, dead in a clump of river weeds and Det. Trevelyan complacently writing it off as a suicide, she undertakes the investigation herself--interrogating Allison's distraught lover Emily; her chums Sigrid, Maggie, and Susan (not all of whom knew she was gay; some are scandalized); her ex-lover, Milch the busboy, who supposedly met with her on that fateful night and soon is murdered himself; and assorted relatives, instructors, and sorority personnel. A blackmail scare emerges, as well as petty theft and vandalism in the sorority's ""ritual"" room. The brouhaha erupts in a backwoods face-off, during which Jane and her awkward chum Cordelia are held hostage by a demented KAS staff member, but pluckily escape to conclude that prejudice isn't very nice--and neither are most men. All the stereotypes are trotted out: the snooty sorority girl; the closet lesbian; the sensitive, intelligent, loving, caring, perfect lesbian, etc. Earnestly if not engagingly told, and a bit tiresome in its pleas for understanding personal ""choice. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
