What do you think?
Rate this book
A Secret Woman: A Mystery
What happens to a detective with more secrets than the killers he investigates? Lieutenant Simon Goldtree is the boy wonder of the Essex City Police Department in upstate New York. The man who gets all the really tough homicide cases, Simon can stand in the center if a case and simply feel the lies. The media love him and women seem fascinated by him. The other detectives may consider Simon a grandstander, but as Simon tells his friend Andrea, all he really cares about is the truth. But what about his own truth, his own lies? What about the secret desires he tells no one but Andrea? When insurance executive Martin Stanstead turns up dead in his own car, Simon's partner, Sergeant Frank Garrowey, throws himself into the hard work of the investigation. From the beginning, however, Simon knows that this case is different. He knows this is the one that could destroy him. Slowly the two detectives close in on Stanstead's killer. They discover mob ties only to see a cover-up take shape right in front of them. Knowing that Frank has too much to lose, Simon prepares to take on Essex City's gang boss, his own police department, and anyone else, to expose the lies-- until his own secrets explode in the local media. Publicly humiliated and forced to resign from the force, Simon decides at last to follow his heart and become the person he always wanted to be. But what about the Stanstead case? If a desire for truth pulls the ex-cop back to Essex City, what will happen to his new life-- assuming the gang boss lets the former investigator live at all?
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 19, 2002
78 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Pollack
205 books343 followersRachel Grace Pollack was an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. Pollack was a great influence on the women's spirituality movement.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 2, 2008
One of the best books I've read in a while. The murder investigation was carefully laid out and realistic as far as I could tell, the attention to characterization smoothly detailed, the Essex City setting tangible, and the clues to Goldtree's secret life and identity in the first part deftly placed. The book is divided into 3 parts, with parts 1 and 3 concerning the mystery, and parts 2 with Goldtree. I liked all of the parts, and part 2 made me think about gender, but the middle might seem like an interruption to a reader looking for a pure mystery read.
The themes I picked out were to secret lives, hidden and public selves, loved ones and people in your social circles feeling like they'd been lied to if you let them assume certain things about you, and dealing with the fallout of the public revealing of your other self. This is the type of book I'd want to reread at a later date, just to see if I can pick out the parallels between Stanstead (the murder victim), Goldtree (the detective), and the murderer's public and hidden selves.
The themes I picked out were to secret lives, hidden and public selves, loved ones and people in your social circles feeling like they'd been lied to if you let them assume certain things about you, and dealing with the fallout of the public revealing of your other self. This is the type of book I'd want to reread at a later date, just to see if I can pick out the parallels between Stanstead (the murder victim), Goldtree (the detective), and the murderer's public and hidden selves.
May 12, 2021
What a great read! All mystery novels should be bookends for the story of a woman's gender transition.
On the surface level it's a murder mystery that feels very realistic, set in a small city in the Hudson valley. The setting and the characters all feel real and it's easy to just dump into and get swept along. Emma's transition, too, feels realistic both her conviction and her fears. How it's so hard to take that first step, but one's it's taken (or once someone pushes you), some things just feel inevitable.
At a deeper level there's some really interesting themes about identity, secrecy, what you hide and why, and who you let see what sides of you. The vulnerability that comes with telling a whole truth is real, and sometimes you're not ready to tell it, and sometimes you don't want to hear it.
I wish there were a whole series of these books.
cw: forced outing
content note, queers who are too young to remember 2002 may be surprised by the language (Emma self identifies as transexual and uses 'tranny' a few times). None of it felt bad to me, but for someone who didn't grow up with that language being what was not only acceptable but affirming, it might be surprising at first.
On the surface level it's a murder mystery that feels very realistic, set in a small city in the Hudson valley. The setting and the characters all feel real and it's easy to just dump into and get swept along. Emma's transition, too, feels realistic both her conviction and her fears. How it's so hard to take that first step, but one's it's taken (or once someone pushes you), some things just feel inevitable.
At a deeper level there's some really interesting themes about identity, secrecy, what you hide and why, and who you let see what sides of you. The vulnerability that comes with telling a whole truth is real, and sometimes you're not ready to tell it, and sometimes you don't want to hear it.
I wish there were a whole series of these books.
cw: forced outing
content note, queers who are too young to remember 2002 may be surprised by the language (Emma self identifies as transexual and uses 'tranny' a few times). None of it felt bad to me, but for someone who didn't grow up with that language being what was not only acceptable but affirming, it might be surprising at first.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews