3.72 AVERAGE


3 stars. One of the betters ones of the last few books. I didn’t hate this at all. Wasn’t amazing but it held my interest and I liked the character growth for Kate. Her niece has run away from and even though Kate’s brother now wants nothing to do with Kate because she’s a lesbian he calls and asks her to help. Kate refuses even when he tells her that his daughter is also a lesbian. Aimee is upset and leaves Kate for a while. I loved that Kate had to work her shit out on her own (with the help of her therapist ofc). She had a lot going on. This was good. I liked that Dylan came out as MTF transgender to Kate and while Kate was against it at first she did come around to acknowledging him as his nephew. Pretty good read.

In my review of Murder by Tradition, I characterize the story as a “courtroom drama”—a fairly unsuccessful one because the verdict—and the actions of the jury afterward—are so unbelievable. This book is better, not only because Forrest has grown as a writer, but because the verdict is more in keeping with the real world and because we get to see the whole courtroom process. In fact, the story starts in the courtroom with Detective Kate Delafield on the witness stand in a murder investigation. After each scene in the courtroom is a flashback to the actual investigation, where all the pieces of the puzzle are presented.

As a courtroom drama, the book is a great success. It is also a well-plotted whodunit with the added bonus of not appearing to be a whodunit at all. Although Forrest gives us important clues, we, like Kate in the novel, are content to dismiss them when an obvious suspect is arrested.

Yes, Kate’s homophobic lost brother turns up again Seems that his 16-year-old daughter has gender issues and has run away from home. Kate’s search for her acts kind of like an intermission between courtroom sessions. Introduced is the subject of transgender issues, which even Kate is nonplussed by. Interspersed with this search is Kate’s estrangement from Aimee, who finally gets fed up with Kate’s morose secretiveness and her drinking, and packs her bags

At first, I was not sorry to see Aimee go. She is—and has been since she first appeared—one of the weakest characters in the Kate Delafield series. She is simply there. After some thought, though, I begin to wonder whether we see Aimee as Kate sees her: pretty window dressing, a comfortable pillow to come home to after a hard day’s detecting. It doesn't make me like her any better, but it might explain why.

Will Kate bond with her new “nephew”? Will she be more open with Aimee and stop her excessive drinking? Will she choose to retire after the sobering courtroom verdict? We won’t know until the next book.

Final Rating: 4

Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.

woolfian's review

4.0
dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
tangleroot_eli's profile picture

tangleroot_eli's review

3.0

















All right, Katherine Forrest, ya got me. You wrote a book I spent 7/8 of wanting to throw the protagonist out the window and then pulled the rug out from under me. For most of the book, I was so angry at this character: the Kate Delafield who justified and denied her alcoholism, blamed everyone and everything but herself for her relationship problems, sleepwalked through her investigation, and showed a startling lack of understanding and empathy toward her trans nephew, wasn't the Kate Delafield I remembered from [b:The Beverly Malibu|879749|The Beverly Malibu (Kate Delafield, #3)|Katherine V. Forrest|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328758780s/879749.jpg|865043] and [b:Liberty Square|956233|Liberty Square (Kate Delafield, #5)|Katherine V. Forrest|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361659857s/956233.jpg|941143].

Then! In the 11th hour, Kate has her come-to-Jesus epiphany, the moment where she--and we as the reader--realize that all of this asshaberdashery was a very deliberate choice on Forrest's part, that the chickens of Delafield's years of drinking, being closeted, and investigating gruesome homicides had finally come home to roost. Which was kinda cool. And while her complete 180 is somewhat implausible, Forrest portrays it with a deft touch that made it seem less so.

The problem is that, by that point, I was so disengaged from Delafield--and the story--that the reversal was too little too late. It doesn't help that, while Forrest shines at the police investigation parts of police procedurals, the courtroom parts were so. flipping. boring. that I could barely drag myself through them.

I also had a huge problem with the way the jacket synopsis in no way meshed with what the book was actually about. That's not Forrest's fault, but it is a problem with how the publisher chose to put the book forward, which makes it a problem with the book-as-object that I can't entirely overlook.

I will say that I'm quite looking forward to reading the next (and currently last) book in the series, [b:High Desert|18051981|High Desert (Kate Delafield, #9)|Katherine V. Forrest|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385522421s/18051981.jpg|25335731], to see if we get to hold onto the new and improved Kate Delafield.
ksparks's profile picture

ksparks's review

2.0

I was sorry not to like this book more as I like this author. The problem is, it is a totally straightforward procedural--reading it is like watching paint dry. There's a tiny little twist at the end but overall there is not enough to the plot to sustain interest.