A Killing Cure (Jane Lawless Series #4) » (Reprint)

ELLEN HART is the Lambd-and Minnesota Book Award-winning author of the Jane Lawless mysteries and the Sophie Greenway mysteries. Called one of the "top novelists in the cultishly popular gay mystery genre" by Entertainment Weekly, she lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Members of the prestigious and long-revered Amelia Gower Women's Club are suddenly dropping like flies. The director has been strangled to death and the founder's granddaughter has taken a fatal fall from the third-floor. Minneapolis restaurateur-sleuth Jane Lawless enlists the help of her best friend, Cordelia, to help her search for clues in the frightening deaths. But the crime scene only becomes more and more dangerous with each secret they uncover, including a possible connection between Jane's lover and the murders. In this gripping, exciting early mystery from one of the genre's best, Ellen Hart's series is as delightful as ever.

Publishers Weekly

Hart, whose Stage Fright is a 1992 Lamda nominee for Best Lesbian Mystery, hits her stride with this lively tale that follows Minneapolis restaurateur/sleuth Jane Lawless as she delves into the secrets of the prestigious Amelia Gower Women's Club. Death has claimed two directors of the philanthropic Gower Foundation, also founded by Amelia. Charlotte Fortnum is strangled during an evening walk and Rose Gower, a descendant of Amelia, takes a fatal fall down the stairs at the club. The police arrest Emery Gower, recently fired by Charlotte from his job at the foundation, for the strangling and rule Rose's death accidental. But board members Mae Williams and Miriam Cipriani suspect foul play and ask Jane to investigate. Once she agrees, however, they prove remarkably obstructive. Dorrie Harris, a Gower club member whom Jane has been dating, aspires to a now-vacant board position and discourages Jane's snooping, while Cordelia Thorn, Jane's colorful sleuthing partner and new club member, is ready to forge ahead. Jane and Cordelia make a successful duo as entertainers and investigators, resolving all mysteries but this small one: While Jane probes the club's nooks and crannies, who's running her restaurant? (Sept.)