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Brett Higgins Motor City Thrillers #1
When the Dancing Stops
In a daring departure from the standard lesbian mystery, this exciting new author brings you a brilliant crime novel of love, deception, and revenge. A novel that will take you deep into the dark side of desire and engulf you in wave after wave of raw eroticism and heartpounding suspense...Sometimes, there is a fine line between right and wrong, between good and evil. As lieutenant to the owner of a chain of adult bookstores and "entertainment centers", Brett Higgins walks that fine line. People often mistook the tall, broadshouldered woman for a man, but Storm never did. She'd known right from the start what Brett was, and she liked it. The problem was, so many others did too...
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
1 person is currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Therese Szymanski
23 books16 followersTherese (Reese) Szymanski is an award-winning playwright who has been short-listed for a few Lammies, a few Goldies and a Spectrum, and made the Publishing Triangle’s list of Notable Lesbian Books in 2004 and was chosen for an Alice B. Reader’s Appreciation Award for 2008.
She’s written eight Brett Higgins Motor City Thrillers (When the Dancing Stops, When the Dead Speak, When Some Body Disappears, When Evil Changes Face, When the Corpse Lies, When First We Practice and When It’s All Relative); one Shawn Donnelly book, It’s All Smoke & Mirrors: The First Chronicles of Shawn Donnelly; and edited the erotic anthologies Back to Basics, Call of the Dark, Wild Nights, Fantasy and A Perfect Valentine. She has novellas in Once Upon a Dyke; Stake through the Heart; Bell, Book and Dyke and Tall in the Saddle and has a few dozen published short stories and essays.
She’s a seasoned writer with two decades’ experience writing for nonprofit, advertising, marketing and journalistic purposes. A second-generation American, she comes from Detroit, lives in D.C., and hopes to move in with her girlfriend, Stacia, soon. Her books can be found for purchase at BellaBooks.com, Amazon.com and all sorts of other places in both the cyber and real worlds.
She occasionally teaches classes, though it's been quite a while since they've been at the college level. She's much more likely these days to be found at festivals and book signings. Well, and online.
http://www.bigbadbutch.com/Bio.html
She’s written eight Brett Higgins Motor City Thrillers (When the Dancing Stops, When the Dead Speak, When Some Body Disappears, When Evil Changes Face, When the Corpse Lies, When First We Practice and When It’s All Relative); one Shawn Donnelly book, It’s All Smoke & Mirrors: The First Chronicles of Shawn Donnelly; and edited the erotic anthologies Back to Basics, Call of the Dark, Wild Nights, Fantasy and A Perfect Valentine. She has novellas in Once Upon a Dyke; Stake through the Heart; Bell, Book and Dyke and Tall in the Saddle and has a few dozen published short stories and essays.
She’s a seasoned writer with two decades’ experience writing for nonprofit, advertising, marketing and journalistic purposes. A second-generation American, she comes from Detroit, lives in D.C., and hopes to move in with her girlfriend, Stacia, soon. Her books can be found for purchase at BellaBooks.com, Amazon.com and all sorts of other places in both the cyber and real worlds.
She occasionally teaches classes, though it's been quite a while since they've been at the college level. She's much more likely these days to be found at festivals and book signings. Well, and online.
http://www.bigbadbutch.com/Bio.html
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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June 18, 2020This is advertised as a different kind of lesbian mystery, and it is. Then again, most of them are different kinds. Brett Higgins is a young woman from the wrong side of the river in Detroit, who manages to work her way up to becoming the manager of a sleazy porn operation that has sidelines in drugs, lap dancing, and intimidation. She is as butch as they come, and fearless. She also has a taste for 17-year-old baby dykes.
If Brett doesn't seem like a very sympathetic character it’s because she isn't. And if the setting seems gritty and unappealing, it’s because it is. It’s hard not to get the feeling that Szymanski is making it as difficult as she can for the reader to like Brett and her job—and also that she seems to enjoy making the reader squirm. Well, an old professor of mine once told me that just because a certain book might not be to your liking doesn't mean it’s not good. I've never quite agreed, but in this case, she might have a point.
For one thing, the author’s use of roving third-person point of view is one of the best I have seen—it may even be considered omniscient, which is the hardest POV to work with. The reader may experience what is going through the minds of several characters, but you are never confused about who is thinking. She also limits herself to the points of view of only the important characters—which might seem a no-brainer, but evidently is not. The book is tough and honest and gives us a view of a world we rarely see in lesbian mysteries--or anywhere.
The problem is, though, I just don’t like Brett Higgins. The fact that she can get any lover she desires irks me, but I know enough about human nature to realize that this is not even that implausible. Many of my friends have gone off with people that I can’t for the life of me respect. It happens. But when she gets the hots for Allie Sullivan I can only watch with dismay, because Allie is one of the only halfway sympathetic characters in the book. I watch the relationship unfold with the eyes of a disapproving mother.
The book has twist after twist and a fairly surprising ending. Yet the climactic scene is not rendered very clearly and is improbable and forced. Yet none of this really maters—most denouements in mysteries are implausible, and we know which way this one is going to go anyway, even if the author has to transform the personalities of all the main characters midway through the book for it to happen. Everybody ends up questioning their life choices at the same time. Well, call it growth if you like.
As an intellectual, I would give this book a 3.5 or a little higher. As a reader, less than 3. As Allie’s mother, I am going to have to call my lawyer and have a new will drawn up. I’m sure it would be interesting to see if the book has changed much since it was published by Bella, and to see how Brett fares in the next book under different circumstances. But I fear I am going to have to learn these things second hand.
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.
If Brett doesn't seem like a very sympathetic character it’s because she isn't. And if the setting seems gritty and unappealing, it’s because it is. It’s hard not to get the feeling that Szymanski is making it as difficult as she can for the reader to like Brett and her job—and also that she seems to enjoy making the reader squirm. Well, an old professor of mine once told me that just because a certain book might not be to your liking doesn't mean it’s not good. I've never quite agreed, but in this case, she might have a point.
For one thing, the author’s use of roving third-person point of view is one of the best I have seen—it may even be considered omniscient, which is the hardest POV to work with. The reader may experience what is going through the minds of several characters, but you are never confused about who is thinking. She also limits herself to the points of view of only the important characters—which might seem a no-brainer, but evidently is not. The book is tough and honest and gives us a view of a world we rarely see in lesbian mysteries--or anywhere.
The problem is, though, I just don’t like Brett Higgins. The fact that she can get any lover she desires irks me, but I know enough about human nature to realize that this is not even that implausible. Many of my friends have gone off with people that I can’t for the life of me respect. It happens. But when she gets the hots for Allie Sullivan I can only watch with dismay, because Allie is one of the only halfway sympathetic characters in the book. I watch the relationship unfold with the eyes of a disapproving mother.
The book has twist after twist and a fairly surprising ending. Yet the climactic scene is not rendered very clearly and is improbable and forced. Yet none of this really maters—most denouements in mysteries are implausible, and we know which way this one is going to go anyway, even if the author has to transform the personalities of all the main characters midway through the book for it to happen. Everybody ends up questioning their life choices at the same time. Well, call it growth if you like.
As an intellectual, I would give this book a 3.5 or a little higher. As a reader, less than 3. As Allie’s mother, I am going to have to call my lawyer and have a new will drawn up. I’m sure it would be interesting to see if the book has changed much since it was published by Bella, and to see how Brett fares in the next book under different circumstances. But I fear I am going to have to learn these things second hand.
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.
December 18, 2007
lesbian mystery novel found @ prisoners books! yes! unfortunately, the genre with which it occupies is it's only merit.
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January 24, 2016This is my holy grail! I can not find a new copy of this book anywhere! HELP!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews