In the next riveting, insightful Jane Lawless mystery from award-winning Ellen Hart, Jane searches for the truth behind the death of Kira Adler's mother, which has haunted Kira for many years.
When Guthrie Hewitt calls on restaurateur and private investigator Jane Lawless, he doesn’t know where else he can turn. Guthrie has fallen for a girl—Kira Adler. In fact, he was planning to propose to her on Christmas Eve. But his trip home with Kira over Thanksgiving made him uneasy. All her life, Kira has been haunted by a dream—a nightmare, really. In the dream, she witnesses her father murder her mother. She knows it can’t be true, because the dream doesn’t line up with the facts of her mother’s death. But after visiting Kira’s home for the first time, and receiving a disturbing anonymous package in the mail, Guthrie starts to wonder if Kira’s dream might hold more truth than she knows. When Kira’s called home again for a family meeting, Guthrie knows he needs Jane’s help to figure out the truth, before the web of secrets Kira’s family has been keeping all these years ensnares Kira, too. And Jane’s investigation will carry her deep into the center of a close-knit family that is not only fraying at the edges, but about to burst apart.
Ellen Hart is the author of twenty-eight crime novels in two different series. She is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction, a three-time winner of the Golden Crown Literary Award in several categories, a recipient of the Alice B Medal, and was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans in 2005. In 2010, Ellen received the GCLS Trailblazer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of lesbian literature. For the past fourteen years, Ellen has taught "An Introduction to Writing the Modern Mystery" through the The Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation. Ellen's latest Sophie Greenway mystery is No Reservations Required (Ballantine). Rest for the Wicked, the twentieth Jane Lawless mystery, will be released by St. Martin's/Minotaur in October 2012. Bella Books has recently revived the out-of-print books by publishing them in both trade paperback and E-book. Ellen lives in the Minneapolis area with her partner of over 35 years.
The Grave Soul, the 23rd book in Ellen Hart’s Jane Lawless mystery series, starts off with a bang on New Year’s Eve. And, no, it’s not fireworks. It’s a shocking prologue. While I’m generally not a fan of amnesia as a plot technique, in this case, there is a concussion involved, and it makes sense. The back of the book jacket quotes Entertainment Weekly, calling Ms. Hart as “a top novelist in the cultishly popular gay mystery genre.” While this may very well be true, I would urge any reader to check out Ellen Hart’s writing. The more I read her books, the better I like them. This one had me riveted to my spot in my book nook for hours on end until I could barely keep my eyes open.
Backtrack to days before Christmas. Guthrie Hewitt, a former employee of restaurateur Jane Lawless, calls upon her to investigate a possible murder. His girlfriend, Kira Adler, lost her mother when she was only five years old. Her death was officially ruled an accident, but after meeting the family and asking a few too many questions, Guthrie received an ominous, anonymous message. It was a photo of Kira’s mother with a threat to Guthrie to butt out. Now he wants to hire Jane, a licensed PI, to check out the Adler family.
Jane is reluctant to get involved. She has resolved to put her time and energy into her business for the time being. But after none of the other investigators Guthrie talks to will look into it, Jane’s friend, the effervescent theater producer Cordelia Thorn, volunteers them to take the job. Thus, Jane is hooked.
Eventually, she returns on her own for a longer stint and goes undercover, landing a job as a bartender for Kira’s dad Kevin. What better way to get close to the family and learn some secrets? Maybe. For every question that is unmasked, a new puzzle seems to emerge. This family seems to stick together. Beneath it all, however, something dark is simmering. What are they hiding? Kira seems caught in a web of deceit, yet she doesn’t even know that she should be afraid. Jane is obviously in danger, too. It’s just a matter of when, and where...
I found myself questioning almost every character in this book. Everyone seemed to have something to hide. Besides Kevin, there’s brother Doug, who’s an alcoholic. His wife Laurie is a former teacher and struggles with their marriage. Hannah, Kira’s aunt, was the most mysterious to me. She is a doctor in Eau Claire, sworn to protect life, yet I had my doubts even about her. Evangeline, her grandmother, too. She’s very nice and quite religious, but somehow she’s involved in the family coverup too. There are lots of family meeting. What’s that all about? Guthrie has good reason to be nervous about this dysfunctional family. I must also mention Father Mike. The parish priest is a long-time friend of the family and pretty much considers himself one of the family. He is apparently aware of much of what goes on in this family also, so I couldn’t scratch him off my list entirely.
As a private eye and bartender, Jane does what comes naturally – she snoops. That is to say, she asks questions, lots of questions. She listens quite a bit as well. When it all comes out in the wash, it’s not her decision to make. This up-in-the-air outcome might seem unsatisfactory to a lot of readers. It struck me that no one had truly gotten away with anything. Everyone involved had suffered in one way or another, perhaps more than if the law had done its job years before. The ones who perhaps suffered most were the daughters and the wives, and there is no way to make that up to them except to start telling the truth and let them finally live their lives.
Restaurateur Jane Lawless, wearing her private investigator hat, is badly beaten, and has partial amnesia about what happened her last day in New Dresden, where she has been investigating the death, many years ago, of Kira Adler's mother. The family is hiding things, that much Jane remembers, but what did she discover to provoke the beating, and who was responsible? The story jumps backward and forward in time, but is an absorbing read.
SPOILER--though you shouldn't care because you shouldn't read this book. I generally like Ellen Hart's mysteries because she's a big 'ole dyke and so is her main character. But evidently big 'ole dyke doesn't translate to FEMINIST. This book being a good example. So the main character, Jane Lawless, now has a part-time gig as a private detective. That's in addition to running her successful restaurant. Yeah, totally plausible, but whatever...This particular case is disturbing. Jane's old employee hires her to find out what happened to the mother of his girlfriend. It turns out mom was murdered--strangled--by dad, HER HUSBAND, and detective Lawless goes on to imply that THE HUSBAND has suffered enough and should not be turned over to the authorities. And she makes excuses for THE WHOLE FAMILY that covered up the MURDER OF THE MOTHER BY HER HUSBAND. Turns out the dead woman was a bad mother (I'm not joking--this is the plot) drank while she was pregnant, and the dad was so upset that she might be pregnant again that he STRANGLED HER AND PUSHED HER OVER A DECK INTO A RAVINE. And everyone--from family, priest, funeral home director to sheriff--is part of the conspiracy because dad is such a nice guy. You have got to be fucking kidding me. That is a dangerous message and terribly offensive...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I've never not loved a Jane Lawless book but I didn't love this one. Not sure I even particularly liked it. It was a pretty average whodunnit with nothing special to add. The only positive thing about this book was Jane and Cordelia.
Though I usually LOVE Jane Lawless Mysteries (a great escape!) and some are better than others, this one left me scratching my head at the end and quite disappointed. The beginning was riveting but towards the end the justification for the actions of the characters had me thinking 'what? that makes no sense & are you taking the law into your own hands? And really you are fine with this?" I got to the last page and was stunned that is where it ended.
From reading I was waiting for a twist on the whodunit that never came, like typical mysteries. Halfway through you find out what happened to Delia & who did it, so I assumed this was a red herring. Nope, the 'mystery' was why she was killed, not the who. Even with the why it did not justify the ending, especially Jane's decision. This felt out of character for me. There was so much 'wrong' in this family that I am shocked Jane just walks away.
I also had a hard time understanding why Grace was hidden away. She is treated like she has severe mental issues or a danger, but in the writing of the character it doesn't seem that severe. Yes, she has some anger issues but in terms of what the family did & reacted, I would think Grace was truly unhinged and in danger of being put in protective services if they had not hidden her away. Or that she had a severe mental limitations and couldn't live in mainstream and function on her own . But I didn't get that severity and in fact her sister Kira mentions that her intelligence is just fine and is thriving as an artist. And why they had to keep her apart from Kira I did not understand. Honestly I really thought it was going to turn out that Grace killed her mother and that is why they hid her away. However Kira, though a little upset, doesn't seem that freaked out that her family has hidden her sister away most of her life and all the secrets.
I really wanted to like this book but it just didn't seem to make sense or that I liked any of the characters in it, including Jane.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Hart mixes it up, here, giving the reader a surprising start, then backtracking to see how the characters got there. While this works for keeping the narrative from settling into a stale format, it means there isn't too much of a mystery to figure out (one can see what is still secret pretty early on). I liked seeing Jane working undercover and working suspects and family members on the sly--it also let Hart flesh out the characters better.
That said, this is an odd duck, storywise, and I'm not sure any family would behave in the manner of the Adlers.
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS BELOW!
The ethics presented in the book are slightly disturbing, which is why I didn't award an extra star. The murdered woman, Delia, was killed by her husband because she drank while pregnant (resulting in a kid with fetal-alcohol syndrome) and was drinking while pregnant again. The family decides to cover it up, with the help of a sheriff and priest--and hides the disabled child for the next twenty years! So, to punish his wife for drinking during pregnancy he murders her while she's pregnant? Huh? Then they keep a daughter prisoner? And Jane just walks away from this in disgust and leaves it up to her client and his fiancé to decide whether to turn them in? Hart works to make the killer husband sympathetic, too, which is disturbing.
The Grave Soul is the twenty-third book in the Jane Lawless series by Ellen Hart. This is the first book of Ellen Hart's that I have ever read. I enjoy discovering new authors that write well and tell a good story...Ellen Hart does a great job with The Grave Soul.
The Grave Soul is mostly set in a small town in rural Wisconsin. Family secrets are at the center of this tale. Jane Lawless owns a popular restaurant in Minneapolis as well as running her own detective agency. Along with her sidekick Cordelia she has had plenty of mysteries to solve in the past. Jane's former employee Guthrie seeks her help when his girlfriend returns home to the small Wisconsin town and does not come back. Guthrie has been wary of Kira Adler's family and the dreams that Kira has been having about her mother's death. Jane agrees to help and is quickly caught up in the family secrets.
The book opens with Jane being injured but has lost her memory. As her memory returns she remembers what has happened back in Wisconsin. As I reader, I was riveted to the pages wanting to know what was going to happen next. The Grave Soul is a compelling mystery that I really enjoyed reading.
Kira Adler is haunted by a nightmare of her mother being strangled. Her boyfriend Guthrie is ready to propose to her during the Christmas holiday. He is invited to go with her to her family's home for the Thanksgiving holiday. He is left feeling uneasy & actually overhears a conversation about Kira's mother. They all say the mother accidently fell off a patio which overlooked a cliff. He wonders if he should tell Kira anything about this. After coming home, Kira suddenly "has to be home". And she keeps ignoring his calls & "has to" stay longer. Then he gets a strange package in the mail.
Guthrie goes to restauranteur & investigator Jane Lawless for help. Jane gets right in the middle of the family's business & almost gets killed in doing so. The family secrets are ready to explode!
So I was really riveted by the mystery, but some of the conclusions were downright baffling! Bizarre treatment of a character with a psychological disability and of a character with alcoholism, where their treatment seemed to be treated as a foregone conclusion by the author-- Totally unrelatable moral compass operating behind these books. It jarred me right out of the story and made me think Jane was a sociopath for accepting it as normal.
Sad because the mystery was actually pretty interesting! I'm going to read a few others in the series to see if the earlier ones are less immoral.
I liked the concept for this one, although I wish the prologue had been repeated where the story caught up with it.
There were a lot of decisions Jane could have made that could have prevented her injuries, such as paying the fee for another investigator. But Jane has never been practical and that's part of her charm. I'm glad she's getting smarter about firearms but she projected a lot of who she truly was to a small-knit community for no good reason.
The twist was good, although I caught it early because it was always mentioned as an afterthought that no one looked into.
While this one does delve into domestic abuse and alcoholism, it doesn't feel oppressive the way some of the other themes in her books can. I think so far this might be one of my favourites of this series, and that's because of the storytelling.
It's also nice to see Julia again. Jane dates many awful women but at least Julia is permanent.
Ok, now this is what I call a good well written mystery....Once again Jane Lawless takes on a case a man is worried about his fiancee and begs Jane to look into what is going on in the small town her family lives in....In the course of her investigations Jane is beaten and left with low grade amnesia having no clue who she is or why she is on the run or what she is even running from she returns to her bff Cordelia's home for a NYE celebration....Julia is there and takes Jane to the hospital for a check up Jane gets back involved with the case even though she doesn't remember everything that happened the first time....This is a good old fashioned mystery and worth the read or the listen.......
10++++++!!!! Wow, what a mess Jane got caught up in!!!! A family dysfunction in a small town were everyone knows your name and family. Then a terrible tragedy happens and it gets swept under the rug by several people in town for 20 years, then a piece of thread starts to unravel. Jane is hired to find out what it is all about, and she gets caught in the middle of family DRAMA to the max. You will love this book, i couldn't figure it out until the last chapter. I lost a whole lot of sleep.
I picked it up because the author is a Minneapolitan, as am I, and I became aware of her from an article in MSP Magazine.
I gave 4 stars for being an entertaining read and the fact that I still guessed a different perpetrator close to the end of the book. It’s not “literature” but a good entertaining read. I’ll read more of her work.
I would have given this four stars, but I was disgusted that the whole bunch of them didn't get locked up that my rating dropped to three stars. Other than the ending, I really enjoyed it. Cordelia as a bear made me laugh out loud.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Called it again though. Her earlier books had less projection. Which made them more frustrating as well as more satisfying. Or perhaps I've simply become accustomed to her style.
A fun light read. Great characters, although I guessed the secret the family was concealing. Odd resolution that nods to human complexity and family ties.
I love Ellen Hart’s Jane Lawless Series. She develops fleshed out characters who grab my interest and often times my heart as well. This offering is particularly complex and suspenseful, the plot rather harrowing, the mysteries and secrets intricate; the stakes and risks are high, for the characters and for Jane! The novel asks us: How far would you go to protect your family? And maybe, ultimately: How would you resolve a thorny ethical dilemma?
The Grave Soul was a really interesting story as it played with a seeming sense of transplanted hillbilly southern gothic transported to Wisconsin. Or at least that was my first impression of the story as it unfolded in the beginning.
I wasn't initially crazy about the non-linear way the story was told. But once I gave in and just went along for the ride the story became easier
The book has an unfinished resolution so there might be a bit of disatisfaction with that storytelling choice.
A couple of little moments in the book that don't amount to anything spoilery that I particularly enjoyed was Jane working as a bartender while undercover and the brief look at Hattie as she is definitely growing up. When she dropped the line "Auntie C. was pissed", my mouth dropped open. Then I thought to myself, "Where did she learn that language?"
Overall, this was a decent read but I wasn't crazy about the way things finished up with no real sense of resolution, only a set of possibilities.