The Lavender House Murder

by Nikki Baker, Ann Aptaker (Foreword by)

Overview

A Virginia Kelly Mystery, Book 2 - By night - the bars, the music, the sexual energy. By day - the beaches, the bay ... basking in the sun and the scent of suntan lotion. And everywhere the women of Provincetown.

Among these women in the sun is Virginia Kelly, a woman of color, on vacation from the mostly white world of finance. Ginny has come to P-town with friend Naomi, and without lover Emily. They stay at Lavender House, a hotel for lesbians run by Sam, a woman with whom Naomi has had some dramatic history. Other inhabitants include Anya, who works for the inn; Joan, a writer and sometime guest; loud Barb and her quiet partner. And in P-town, Ginny is drawn to another woman. Then ... murder shatters the vacation bliss. For among the people brushing up against Ginny and Naomi for these few sensual days is a ruthless killer. And a victim whose death will change the lives of Ginny and Naomi.

Nikki Baker, author of In the Game, is the first Black voice in lesbian mystery fiction.

First published to acclaim in 1992, and nominated for Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, this new edition features a foreword by Ann Aptaker (Cantor Gold series).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951092290
Publisher:	Requeered Tales
Publication date:	08/18/2020
Series:	Virginia Kelly Mystery , #2
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Nikki Baker was born in 1962. "In the Game" was her first novel, tossed off as a bit of lark and diversion, and published by Barbara Grier and Donna McBride's Naiad Press in 1991. Written in the spirit of pulp fiction, featuring a black lesbian as hero, her Virginia Kelly mystery series charmed readers instantly. "The Lavender House Murder", set in Provincetown, followed in 1992. By the time the third book, "Long Goodbyes", appeared in 1993, a substantial audience had grown and the second book nominated for a Lambda Literary Lesbian Mystery Award. Kelly's final appearance, "The Ultimate Exit Strategy", was published in 1996. Ms Baker, throughout, remained a bit mysterious herself. In the 25 years since, fans have continued to clamour for fresh adventures, and ponder about Kelly's ongoing relationships.
ReQueered Tales is proud to restore this engaging series to print and thanks the retiring Ms Baker for coming out of retirement this little bit. A whole new generation of fans await and many friends are ready to renew their acquaintance with Virginia Kelly.

Ann Aptaker's debut novel, "Criminal Gold", was a Goldie Award finalist. Her second book, "Tarnished Gold", won a Lambda Literary Award and Goldie Award. Her Cantor Gold crime series celebrates her favorite themes: dangerous women and crime and mystery fiction. Like her protagonist, Ann resides in her beloved hometown, New York, where she is an adjunct professor of art and art history at New York Institute of Technology.

Editorial Reviews

"It is a refreshing change to see real-life lesbians with real-life terrors and real-life anger on the pages of a novel ..." - Washington Blade

"It has adventure, romance, and some of the best internal dialogue anywhere." - Meagan Casey

"Baker infuses her characters with fascinating strengths and poignant weaknesses, characteristics the sharp-minded Kelly notices and gnaws on not just to solve the murder but to expose the sometimes daft elements of Lesbian resort life and the sterner reality of Black life in America" - Ann Aptaker, Criminal Gold

From the Publisher

On vacation in Provincetown, Mass., Virginia Kelly, a lesbian African American and the narrator of this often titillating whodunit, discovers a bullet-ridden corpse. The body is that of a gay newspaper writer, Joan Di Maio, who is lying in her own blood, ``black gunpowder tattoos . . . splattered in deco-like accidental paint against the pallor of her skin.'' Di Maio, it turns out, was an ideologically driven reporter who had engaged in the controversial practice of outing--``pulling closeted queers out of their closets.'' She makes for a fascinating predator turned victim, but Baker's ( In the Game ) story line is diffuse and the writing is sometimes clumsy. (``She had that leggy high-breasted look that would make her a wonder at forty when everybody else's equipment had fallen,'' muses the heroine, in a crude parody of Philip Marlowe.) Murder most foul often takes a backseat to ruminations on relationships, which include Kelly's vacation companion, Naomi Wolf; Kelly's one-night stand, referred to only as the ``car girl''; and a middle-aged woman nicknamed Sam, who runs the lesbian hotel of the title. Provincetown Sheriff Edward Harmon makes brief appearances, but this would-be mystery is strictly girl talk. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly