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Helen Keremos Mysteries #1
Reason to Kill
Lots of 18-year-olds disappear but in the case of Martin Millwell, a routine missing person case turns into a nightmare. Helen Keremos is hired by Martin’s father to find the boy but gets no cooperation from Martin’s mother, her lover or his friends. Why the coverup? Takes Keremos, a lesbian detective, to figure it out and solve the case.
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First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 19, 2020
I know that in music, a lot of people will wait until an artist's second or third album before they will buy. By that time the artist will have learned more and become more mature. I agree most of the time. The same may be true of literature. Oliver Twist is better than The Pickwick Papers, for instance. And Roderick Hudson is better than Watch and Ward.
Readers of lesbian mysteries will also agree that Murder at the Nightwood Bar is superior to Amateur City. But in novels that are part of a series, I'll always want to read the first one first. Why? Because the first novel is the one in which the author sets up the characters, the characters' surroundings, mannerisms, friends, and habits. The Kate Delavield series is a case in point. Although Kate has not yet met Aimee and Forrest has not quite found her voice, Amateur City sets up the series well. We get to know Kate and her job and are anxious to see what she will have to face next.
This is true in spades for the first Helen Keremos novel. In Reason to Kill, we are introduced to Helen without much depth or folderol. Then follows a rather average mystery conducted with some brilliance by the aforesaid Helen.
Helen is called to Winnipeg by a college professor who is concerned because his 18-year-old son is missing. She drives to the last place where the boy was seen—a farmhouse just outside Toronto—and begins questioning suspects—all of whom seem to have something to hide.
Without going into too much detail, Reason to Kill is a better-than-average mystery that could have been better with more backstory on Helen and a little more depth overall. The fact that the plot revolves around an affair between two gay moves the book into a more social and political realm than was found in most mysteries of the time.
Although in subsequent books Helen lets us know that she is a lesbian, she is silent about her sexual identity in Reason to Kill. However, there are clues. In the second chapter she glanced at her client’s secretary “and liked her.” When she finds out that her client sought her out specifically to find his son—who he suspected was gay—Helen responds, “A woman like me would be able to handle it better than a male private investigator.” Helen may also dress like a stereotypical dyke. One of her suspects tells her, “Don’t you come around with your butch charm trying to make trouble for me with Kath. She isn’t susceptible to dykes.” I think that these clues are more than enough to determine that Helen is indeed the first lesbian private detective in literature.
I am giving this closer to a 3.5 than a 3 because Zaremba states that she is trying to stay within the hard-boiled detective tradition, and this she does. We also get a glimpse of what Helen will become in the next three books in the series. A completely no-nonsense detective with inner self-confidence, and snappy prose that never gets cutesy. “All the bullshit in the world won’t prevent me from getting the truth out of you!” And finally her ability to assess the situation is almost unexcelled in Lesbian Mystery fiction.
A Reason to Kill is exactly what a first book should be: enjoyable enough to get through and tantalizing enough to want to go on with the series.
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.
Readers of lesbian mysteries will also agree that Murder at the Nightwood Bar is superior to Amateur City. But in novels that are part of a series, I'll always want to read the first one first. Why? Because the first novel is the one in which the author sets up the characters, the characters' surroundings, mannerisms, friends, and habits. The Kate Delavield series is a case in point. Although Kate has not yet met Aimee and Forrest has not quite found her voice, Amateur City sets up the series well. We get to know Kate and her job and are anxious to see what she will have to face next.
This is true in spades for the first Helen Keremos novel. In Reason to Kill, we are introduced to Helen without much depth or folderol. Then follows a rather average mystery conducted with some brilliance by the aforesaid Helen.
Helen is called to Winnipeg by a college professor who is concerned because his 18-year-old son is missing. She drives to the last place where the boy was seen—a farmhouse just outside Toronto—and begins questioning suspects—all of whom seem to have something to hide.
Without going into too much detail, Reason to Kill is a better-than-average mystery that could have been better with more backstory on Helen and a little more depth overall. The fact that the plot revolves around an affair between two gay moves the book into a more social and political realm than was found in most mysteries of the time.
Although in subsequent books Helen lets us know that she is a lesbian, she is silent about her sexual identity in Reason to Kill. However, there are clues. In the second chapter she glanced at her client’s secretary “and liked her.” When she finds out that her client sought her out specifically to find his son—who he suspected was gay—Helen responds, “A woman like me would be able to handle it better than a male private investigator.” Helen may also dress like a stereotypical dyke. One of her suspects tells her, “Don’t you come around with your butch charm trying to make trouble for me with Kath. She isn’t susceptible to dykes.” I think that these clues are more than enough to determine that Helen is indeed the first lesbian private detective in literature.
I am giving this closer to a 3.5 than a 3 because Zaremba states that she is trying to stay within the hard-boiled detective tradition, and this she does. We also get a glimpse of what Helen will become in the next three books in the series. A completely no-nonsense detective with inner self-confidence, and snappy prose that never gets cutesy. “All the bullshit in the world won’t prevent me from getting the truth out of you!” And finally her ability to assess the situation is almost unexcelled in Lesbian Mystery fiction.
A Reason to Kill is exactly what a first book should be: enjoyable enough to get through and tantalizing enough to want to go on with the series.
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.
September 5, 2024
dissertation reading, #5
i actually really liked this! when i first started reading i was worried i wasn’t going to like the detective figure, but i warmed to her. i really enjoyed reading a mystery where a female detective (and a LESBIAN detective!) is able to be as hardened and emotionless as is expected of male hard-boiled detectives, without having a secret “softer side” - no relationship she’s hiding, no traumatic backstory, helen keremos is the way she is because she wants to be, and that is that.
i did feel like the narrative moved a little fast in places and found it hard to follow sometimes, but i look forward to reading the rest of this series!
i actually really liked this! when i first started reading i was worried i wasn’t going to like the detective figure, but i warmed to her. i really enjoyed reading a mystery where a female detective (and a LESBIAN detective!) is able to be as hardened and emotionless as is expected of male hard-boiled detectives, without having a secret “softer side” - no relationship she’s hiding, no traumatic backstory, helen keremos is the way she is because she wants to be, and that is that.
i did feel like the narrative moved a little fast in places and found it hard to follow sometimes, but i look forward to reading the rest of this series!
July 15, 2024
Rep: lesbian mc, gay side characters
December 28, 2020
So excited to have found a reference to this author, might have been one of the first authors to write mysteries with a lesbian detective. Interesting character she has created, I found this one through ILL and shall search for the next in the series!!! This novel was started in 1975, and the Canadian author turned 90 this year, what a find!!! So grateful.
July 21, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed this! It was exactly what I was looking for in terms of a mystery book. Helen reminds me of a queer Kinsey Milhone and I love it! The mystery was quite decent and Helen gets to the root of the problem quickly and efficiently. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews