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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2004)
fefaruary 6.2004 v BOOKS F ebruary in Portland=several more months of rain. Now is a good time to plan your reading list to get you through the dewy spring days ahead. If you’re l<x>king for a guilty pleasure to round out your list— a book that is light, fun and rea sonably suspenseful— a cheesy lesbian detec tive novel is the way to go. Here are four recent ones— featuring lovely detectives and lots of cheese. I rrefutable E vidence by C .N . Winters; Renais- sauce Alliance, 2002; $15.95 softcover ara Langforth is a real estate agent who witnesses a murder after taking a homeless man to lunch in a seedy section of Detroit. After barely escaping herself, she finds a police station. The dashing Lt. Denise Van Cook takes the case and spends most of the novel giving Sara round-the-clock protection from the murderous thugs who are out to get her before the case goes to trial. But no matter where they try to hide— from Sara’s trust fund house in the Bahamas to five-star hotels in Montre al, and even to Niagara Falls— the bad guys find them. Who is giving them away? W ho cares. The bigger question is, When are Sara and Denise going to get it on? To he honest, this is more of a cheesy romance than a cheesy detective story. Sparks fly from the get-go, and Denise must struggle to remain profes sional despite the “sexual fire that scorched through her veins.” When it comes to cheese, this novel is Lim- hurger. The quality of the writing is irrefutably p<xir, hut the book is rather fun, especially if you read it aloud and whisper, sigh, chuckle and grin your way through it with the charac ters— and maybe your own protector. S treet R ules by Baxter Clare; Bella B(x>ks , 2003; $12.95 softcover hen several members of the Estrella clan are murdered in an appar ent gang-related inci dent, Lt. L.A . Franco, aka Frank, o f the Los M ilitary M eat Springtime for Portland When you’re looking for delicious bad, look no further than lesbian mystery by K a r en K udej Angeles Police Department and her team of detectives begin to follow the easy lead. The plot thickens when Placa Estrella, an up-and-coming gangbanger, gets “smoked” the day before she is supposed to meet with Frank to tell her something important. With the help of chief county coroner Gail Lawless, Frank begins to suspect that one of her fellow “suits" may he involved. In the world of cheese, Street Rules ranks a mild Swiss. The plot has some twists, hut there are a few holes— several of them created by references to the prior Detective Franco novel, Bleeding Out. The slang is overdone, the relationship between Frank and G ail lacks enthusiasm, and the ending is anti-climatic despite the potential for serious drama. But you have to give credit to a lesbian cop who can wield Chicano street talk and thinks Don Giovanni “sounds dope.” A D ay T oo L u n g : A H elen B lack M ystery by Pat Welch; Bella Books, 2003; $12.95 softcover H elen Black is a former detective on parole in small-town Mississip pi. After doing time for negligent man slaughter, she is trying to get hack on her feet with a warehouse job and a room at Mrs. Mapple’s hoarding house. But when her 9-year old neighbor, Sissy, disappears, H elen’s sleuthing instincts kick in. She faces many obstacles, including a gruff detective who knows too much about her; an ex-cellmate who shows up to cause trouble; and Mrs. M apple’s teen-age son, who is in over his head. Fortunately, Helen can find comfort at Rosie’s Café, a conve niently located lesbian hangout. Sissy’s hot- tie aunt, Valerie, doesn’t disappoint either. The writing is rough around the edges, hut with an action-packed plot and an unexpected killer, I’d categorize A Day Too Dmg as a com petent chcddar. D amn S traight : A L illian B yrd C rime S tory by Elizabeth Sims; Alyscm Books, 2003; $13.95 softcover illian Byrd appears to he your average, down-to-earth Midwestern lesbian with a pet rabbit named Todd. She is hunkered down for the winter in her cold Michigan apartment, recovering from her previous adventure in Holy Hell. damn straight Political action The West Wing meets gay fiction in M an About Town by C hristopher M c Q uain f you’ve ever wondered what would happen if the writers of The West Wing were to concoct a gay story line, Mark Merlis’ Man About Town (Fourth Estate, 2003, $24 hardcover) may partially address that curiosity. Joel, a middle-aged congression al adviser, has been left by Sam, his partner of 15 years. Sam is being recruited to work on a bill that sub tly yet viciously discriminates against AIDS patients, and he’s haunted by memories of his first erotic experi ence: a pubescent glimpse of a male swimming- trunks model in the back of an Esquire-like magazine. Joel’s curiosity about the ad leads him to instigate a crazy search for the nameless swimwear model of yore while neurotically attempting to re-enter the dating scene and feeling the heat at work. Joel is, for most of the book, floundering— not very bravely, but often very comically— through an unforeseen midlife crisis. Clearly, Merlis’ own background as a poli cy analyst informs the book’s realistic glimpse into the inner workings of our capital city’s corridors of power and of Joel’s conflict over doing a job requiring political impartiality, even when it means participating in some thing morally troubling. The other elements are less scrutable. Joel I Refinance Now! Call me for a free consultation First tim e b u yers O a n d lo w d o w n p a y m e n t o p t io n s L o w e s t r e f i n a n c e r a t e s in y e a r s ! Russell Leggroan • 503-249-0843 • Lrussell5@msnc.om Mortgage Galería < fka North.tar Mortgage) • 3151 N.E. Sandy, Suite A WWW.Booksurge.com When her best friend, Trudy, calls in distress from Los Angeles, Lillian jumps at the chance to offer her assistance in a warm climate. Lucky for us all, her visit happens to coincide with the Dinah Shore golf tournament. Genie Maychild, “dominatrix of the LPGA tour,” takes a liking to Lillian, and soon our unlikely heroine is pulling all kinds of antics to find out who is harassing Genie. While the plot may he a little farfetched, the writing is strong and filled with humor. One can’t help but like Lillian— she is by far the best detective of the hunch. Damn Straight rates a flavorful dill havarti. j n and his friends are a pernicious ele ment: superficial, affluent, aging, white gay men possessed of endless self-absorption, tiresome cattiness and a not-insignificant touch of racism. Joel seems to suffer from terminal boomeritis. Sexual orien tation aside, all the broadest gener alizations one could make regard ing that generation— smugness, self-aggrandizement coupled with self-pity, an obsessive and graceless pursuit of youth, a fixation on sta tus and income, impotent liberal guilt— are bountifully present. Countermanding our protagonist's person ality is Merlis’ seeming awareness o f its repugnant aspects, and Man About Town achieves its most natural feel when Joel is treated as a loutish figure of satire. This could he an overly flattering interpretation o f not entirely clear intentions, hut, like Sinclair Lewis and John Updike before him, Merlis is capable o f showing us the rather pathetic yet somehow moving humanity underlying the (perhaps culturally imposed) layers o f foible and folly. If it’s slightly bothersome that Merlis is indulgent of Joel’s worst qualities, he does strike a tone ambivalent enough to set Man About Town apart from the ghetto of simplistic gay fic tion. It is, if not a monumental step forward, at least a solid veer in the right direction. JH
