In a Midnight Wood: A Jane Lawless Mystery

by Ellen Hart

Overview

Beloved heroine Jane Lawless finds that some secrets don't stay buried forever in Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Ellen Hart's In a Midnight Wood, the 27th mystery in this cultishly popular series.

Minnesota private investigator Jane Lawless is headed on a little getaway. She and her best friend, Cordelia Thorn, plan to visit their old friend Emma in her hometown of Castle Lake, while also participating in the small town's local art festival. Between the festival and an upcoming high school reunion for the class of 1999, no one in Castle Lake is quite sure who will make an appearance.

But back in 1999, Emma's boyfriend and Castle Lake high school senior Sam Romilly went missing. Everyone thought he ran away, though the town rumor mill has always claimed his father murdered him. Today, within a week of his class's 20th reunion, Sam’s remains are found in someone else's burial plot. Suddenly the case is warming up fast. People who knew Sam—friends and enemies alike—will be in town for the much anticipated reunion. It’s up to Jane to sort the innocent from the guilty, before it's too late.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250308450
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Series:	Jane Lawless Series , #27
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

ELLEN HART, named the 2017 Mystery Writers of America’s Grandmaster, is the author of more than thirty mysteries, many of them featuring private investigator Jane Lawless. Entertainment Weekly has called her “a top novelist in the cultishly popular gay mystery genre.” She has won multiple Minnesota Book Awards, and has been nominated twenty-three times for the Lambda Literary Award, winning six. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her partner of forty years.
ELLEN HART, named the 2017 Mystery Writers of America’s Grandmaster, is the author of more than thirty mysteries, many of them featuring private investigator Jane Lawless. Entertainment Weekly has called her “a top novelist in the cultishly popular gay mystery genre.” She has won multiple Minnesota Book Awards, and has been nominated twenty-three times for the Lambda Literary Award, winning six. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her partner of forty years.

Editorial Reviews

07/06/2020

MWA Grand Master Hart’s elegantly plotted 27th Jane Lawless mystery (after 2019’s Twisted at the Root) takes Jane, a Minneapolis restaurateur and researcher for crime podcasts dealing with Minnesota cold cases, and her best friend, theater director Cordelia Thorn, to Castle Lake for a few days of relaxation before the small town’s annual arts festival. Jane and Cordelia are distracted by some gruesome news from Emma Granholm, the friend they’re staying with. The remains of Sam Romilly, Emma’s high school boyfriend who disappeared in 1999, have just been found buried beneath a coffin in a local graveyard, along with his backpack. For decades, it was rumored that Sam’s father had murdered him. Jane decides to investigate Sam’s death for a podcast, and in the course of her digging comes to realize that someone other than Sam’s father had motive to kill the teenager. Hart builds tension by alternating chapters focused on Jane and friends in the present with those showing Sam and his schoolmates in 1999. Each new glimpse of the past alters readers’ understanding of the present. This complex mystery will satisfy newcomers and longtime fans alike. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

[E]legantly plotted . . . Hart builds tension by alternating chapters focused on Jane and friends in the present with those showing Sam and his schoolmates in 1999. Each new glimpse of the past alters readers’ understanding of the present. This complex mystery will satisfy newcomers and longtime fans alike.” —Publishers Weekly

Praise for Ellen Hart and The Jane Lawless Series

“A top novelist in the cultishly popular gay mystery genre.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Hart, the veteran crime writer, presents her central character, Jane Lawless, with such consistent and off-handed good humour that readers hardly notice the trails she and her character have blazed.” — The Toronto Star

“Distinctive characters and solid plotting underscore the strength of this long-running series.” — Publishers Weekly

“This intricately plotted mystery is filled with a cast of lying characters . . . it's obvious why Mystery Writers of America named her a Grand Master.” — Library Journal on Twisted at the Root

“Hart uses the characters introduced in this installment of her long-running series to ramp up the creepiness.” —Kirkus Reviews on Twisted at the Root

From the Publisher