Review by Booklist Review
Former CIA agent Vera Kelly is now a decidedly settled, 30-year-old Brooklyn PI. She's even quit smoking and plans to buy a piano for her beloved opera-composer/bartender girlfriend, Max. It's 1971, and as rumblings of the Gay Liberation Front echo in the backdrop, Vera and Max live a comfortable, quiet life together. But when Max is pulled back to her estranged family's vast Bel-Air enclave, the tranquility is shattered. Away from their community, the two are uneasy, fearful, unmoored, and sink back into past insecurities. Sanguine Max goes on the attack in the face of family drama, and cool, stalwart Vera falters--she can't protect Max like she wants to. Then Max disappears, and Vera realizes there is no good explanation. Either Max has abandoned her, or she is in terrible trouble. When she shakes the fear long enough to begin to formulate a search plan, Vera realizes that it's not just the California sun dulling her edge; she's rusty. Knecht continues to paint a gritty yet romantic picture in her third Vera novel, now with an added layer of emotional depth and character development. The internal tension is palpable, and the humorous moments offer tremendous relief. Who Is Vera Kelly? (2018) asked Knecht's first volume. Perhaps Vera now has the answer.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in 1971, Sue Grafton Award winner Knecht's excellent third mystery featuring CIA operative-turned-PI Vera Kelly (after 2020's Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery) finds Vera and her girlfriend, Max Comstock, quietly enjoying their life together in Brooklyn when Max receives a letter begging her to return to her estranged family because her parents are getting divorced. Vera supports Max by accompanying her to Los Angeles, but she quickly discovers how little she knows about the ultra-wealthy family that cut Max off without a cent because of her sexuality seven years earlier when she was 22. When Max vanishes after an acrimonious family dinner, Vera must rescue the woman she loves by mapping a perilous course through the underbelly of California cults. Knecht's scathing picture of the mental health "cures" of the 1970s is at once bitterly humorous and horrifying. Filled with well-drawn, quirky characters, the novel captures both the hidden pleasures and not so hidden dangers of a closeted existence. This nuanced portrait of gay life in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots thoroughly satisfies. Agent: Soumeya Roberts, HG Literary. (June)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A former CIA agent--turned--private detective is forced to go undercover after her girlfriend is forcibly institutionalized. The third installment in the series opens in 1971 with Vera Kelly adjusting to domestic bliss after Max, her bartender girlfriend, moves in with her in Brooklyn. Formerly a bit of a loner, Vera suddenly has a community. When Max gets a letter from her sister saying their parents are splitting up, she feels compelled to return to Los Angeles for the first time since she came out and her wealthy family refused to accept her sexuality, and she asks Vera to join her. When they arrive in Bel Air, a host of new characters greet them: Max's stern father now has a much-younger fiancee, and there's also a friend who lives on the property and has grand plans for spending the family fortune. When Vera wakes up one morning after Max had a fight with her father to find Max gone from the property, she panics, and then a message comes with the worst possible news: Max is in a hospital, which turns out to be a private sanatorium owned by her family. Vera goes undercover, admitting herself as a patient in hopes of rescuing Max, and she's reminded of her own time in juvenile detention and her strained relationship with her mother. Knecht's lively prose moves easily between Vera's experiences with Max's cold and homophobic family to her memories of being a teenager with a distant and unforgiving mother, effectively creating an atmosphere of danger and uncertainty as Vera and Max work to survive and reunite. Knecht has crafted an intriguing title character, and it's a pleasure to watch Vera allow herself to be devoted to a partner and to trust in the life they have built together. An immersive encounter with a beloved character. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
