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Maggie Garrett Mystery #1
We Know Where You Live
Maggie Garrett is a red-headed San Francisco P.I. with a reputation for quick thinking and an ability to keep her mouth shut. When a local gay paper accuses the Pride Club, some of whose members have close ties to the Mayor, of financial improprieties, the club's Executive Committee hires Maggie to investigate. In the face of a terrifying campaign of intimidation against her, Maggie discovers a web of corruption that extends far beyond the gay community. As she gets closer to the truth the stakes are raised and a member of the Executive Committee is murdered. Is it a random act of anti-gay violence or a result of the investigation? Attacks on Maggie suggest she's on to something, but will she survive to get to the bottom line?
- GenresMystery
246 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 16, 2022
Definitely a product of the '90's. Fun quick read tho.
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June 18, 2020The political infighting of LGBT groups in San Francisco is hardly stuff that great novels are fashioned from. But as Henry James once said, we must grant the authors their donnèe—their subject, their idea—whether we like that idea or not. This isn’t easy for a reviewer—especially one whose purpose is to actually review as many books in this genre as possible (James’s advice is to simply ignore it.) I’ll just assume that many readers who have been involved in LGBT politics, fundraising, and consciousness raising may be more enthralled with the subject matter than I was. In the author’s own words, “The thing about political groups—hell, any nonprofit—is nobody wants to deal with finances.” Well, nobody wants to read about them either.
In a nutshell, youthful San Francisco PI Maggie Garrett is hired by Lynnette McSorley, an Executive Committee Member for Pride, an LGBT political action group, to root out the person who has been embezzling their hard-earned donations. To do this, Maggie poses as a historian who is writing a book on the LGBT political system. The trouble is that many of her suspects are, along with Lynette, Committee Members and already in on the secret. And for the others, Maggie’s questions are so leading that only a dimwit could fail to figure out her real agenda.
Taylor is careful that the Committee is politically correct in terms of its makeup: there are women, men, blacks, whites, and Asians. No matter what their origin, though, almost all are incredibly boring. None of the men are drawn well enough to distinguish one from the other. Which makes even less interesting the already far-from-exciting case of embezzlement.
Having said all that, We Know Where You Live, is a competently written, well-edited novel—which is what I have come to expect from Seal Press. And I have also come to expect “movement” novels from Seal, such as Barbara Wilson’s Murder in the Collective. My definition of a Movement novel is one in which the protagonist or her friends are involved with any kind of LGBT or feminist groups. This is good; this is an important historical time, but for the stay-at-homes, it is less than riveting subject matter. There is excitement in We Know Where You Live, especially in the second half. Someone seriously does not want Maggie delving into Pride’s affairs. And to confuse things, there are random cases of gay bashing that the police seem to be powerless to stop. Is anything connected? Will the woman of Maggie’s dreams manage to kick her drug habit? Or will she accept her lover Kristin back home, despite their differences?
Maggie, with the help of her 17-year-old computer hacker assistant, manages to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers as we knew she would. It is just a little difficult to care. And when the crimes are actually analyzed, Maggie’s stick-to-itiveness results in three murders and a bunch of other violence that wouldn’t otherwise have happened. Oh well, it’s easy to criticize after the fact.
Maybe my biggest disappointment, though, was the fact that Maggie’s previous occupation—rock guitarist for a thrash band—was given short shrift. Although she mentions that fact that she was in a band, Maggie seems to have no musical interests, no musician friends, and no real interest in the subject. For Taylor’s professional writing and the believable crime, I’ll give the book somewhere around a 3, but probably won’t go on to the other one in the series. Henry James would approve.
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.
In a nutshell, youthful San Francisco PI Maggie Garrett is hired by Lynnette McSorley, an Executive Committee Member for Pride, an LGBT political action group, to root out the person who has been embezzling their hard-earned donations. To do this, Maggie poses as a historian who is writing a book on the LGBT political system. The trouble is that many of her suspects are, along with Lynette, Committee Members and already in on the secret. And for the others, Maggie’s questions are so leading that only a dimwit could fail to figure out her real agenda.
Taylor is careful that the Committee is politically correct in terms of its makeup: there are women, men, blacks, whites, and Asians. No matter what their origin, though, almost all are incredibly boring. None of the men are drawn well enough to distinguish one from the other. Which makes even less interesting the already far-from-exciting case of embezzlement.
Having said all that, We Know Where You Live, is a competently written, well-edited novel—which is what I have come to expect from Seal Press. And I have also come to expect “movement” novels from Seal, such as Barbara Wilson’s Murder in the Collective. My definition of a Movement novel is one in which the protagonist or her friends are involved with any kind of LGBT or feminist groups. This is good; this is an important historical time, but for the stay-at-homes, it is less than riveting subject matter. There is excitement in We Know Where You Live, especially in the second half. Someone seriously does not want Maggie delving into Pride’s affairs. And to confuse things, there are random cases of gay bashing that the police seem to be powerless to stop. Is anything connected? Will the woman of Maggie’s dreams manage to kick her drug habit? Or will she accept her lover Kristin back home, despite their differences?
Maggie, with the help of her 17-year-old computer hacker assistant, manages to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers as we knew she would. It is just a little difficult to care. And when the crimes are actually analyzed, Maggie’s stick-to-itiveness results in three murders and a bunch of other violence that wouldn’t otherwise have happened. Oh well, it’s easy to criticize after the fact.
Maybe my biggest disappointment, though, was the fact that Maggie’s previous occupation—rock guitarist for a thrash band—was given short shrift. Although she mentions that fact that she was in a band, Maggie seems to have no musical interests, no musician friends, and no real interest in the subject. For Taylor’s professional writing and the believable crime, I’ll give the book somewhere around a 3, but probably won’t go on to the other one in the series. Henry James would approve.
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.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews