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Sue Slate: Private Eye
Popular novelist Lee Lynch brings us a delightful romp through the world of hard-boiled detectives with her feline characters Sue Slate and Tallulah Mimosa.
161 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1989
38 people want to read
About the author
Lee Lynch
40 books69 followersLee Lynch published her first lesbian fiction in “The Ladder” in the 1960s. Naiad Press issued Toothpick House, Old Dyke Tales, and more. Her novel The Swashbuckler was presented in NYC as a play scripted by Sarah Schulman. New Victoria Publishers brought out Rafferty Street, the last book of Lynch’s Morton River Valley Trilogy. Her backlist is becoming available in electronic format from Bold Strokes Books. Her newest novels are Beggar of Love and The Raid from Bold Strokes. Her recent short stories can be found in Romantic Interludes (Bold Strokes Books), Women In Uniform (Regal Crest) and at www.readtheselips.com. Her reviews and feature articles have appeared in such publications as “The San Francisco Chronicle,” “The Advocate” and “The Lambda Book Report.” Lynch’s syndicated column, “The Amazon Trail,” runs in venues such as boldstrokesbooks.com, justaboutwrite.com, “Letters From Camp Rehoboth,” and “On Top Magazine.”
Lee Lynch was honored by the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) as the first recipient (for The Swashbuckler) and namesake of The Lee Lynch Classics Award, which will honor outstanding works in Lesbian Fiction published before awards and honors were given. She also is a recipient of the Alice B. Reader Award for Lesbian Fiction, the James Duggins Mid-Career Author Award, which honors LGBT mid-career novelists of extraordinary talent and service to the LGBT community, and was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame. In 2010 Beggar of Love received the GCLS Ann Bannon Readers’ Choice Award and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Bronze Award in Gay/Lesbian Fiction. She has twice been nominated for Lambda Literary Awards and her novel Sweet Creek (Bold Strokes Books) was a GCLS award finalist.
She lives in rural Florida with her wife.
Lee Lynch was honored by the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) as the first recipient (for The Swashbuckler) and namesake of The Lee Lynch Classics Award, which will honor outstanding works in Lesbian Fiction published before awards and honors were given. She also is a recipient of the Alice B. Reader Award for Lesbian Fiction, the James Duggins Mid-Career Author Award, which honors LGBT mid-career novelists of extraordinary talent and service to the LGBT community, and was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame. In 2010 Beggar of Love received the GCLS Ann Bannon Readers’ Choice Award and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Bronze Award in Gay/Lesbian Fiction. She has twice been nominated for Lambda Literary Awards and her novel Sweet Creek (Bold Strokes Books) was a GCLS award finalist.
She lives in rural Florida with her wife.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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June 19, 2020As an aficionado of the lesbian private eye mystery and a serious cat lover, I was intrigued by this book’s blurb: “a delightful romp through the world of Raymond Chandler and Georges Simenon, feline style.” Having talking animals in literature, of course, is not new. Puss in Boots is a talking cat. See also Wind in the Willows and Watership Down where we meet toads and rabbits that speak as well as you or I. And don’t get me started on hobbits. So I was intrigued by what now-iconic writer Lee Lynch would do with the subject—for about 3 pages.
The fact of the matter is that it is possible that Sue Slate, Private Eye is the very worst book in this talking-animal genre. In fact, if may be the worst of several genres, Lesbian Mystery among them. Many people have probably penned–or at least dreamed up—silly stories to tell to their young ones. Jane Austen did this; so did Sylvia Plath and Anne Frank. But none did it for publication, despite that some of these stories were discovered and placed before the public after the authors’ deaths. Why Naiad decided to place this one before us is indeed the mystery.
The basic plot is this. Beautiful chanteuse Tallulah Mimosa asks lesbian private eye Sue Slate to find three kittens that were in her care, but went missing. Sue, with the help of her one-legged brother, several alleycats, a parrot, and various People, she sets out to do just that.
The characters in Sue Slate, Private Eye are not just cardboard, they are wooden. In a spoof, this is sometimes permissible, but I still long for real connections among the characters—characters with interesting backstories, even if they are kittycats. Instead we have bad cat, mouse, and fish puns, where snowman is snowcat, myself is myselves, kidnapped is kitnapped, Atlas is Catlas, John Hancock is John Hancat, Old Spice Aftershave is Old Mice After Lick, and for some reason, Goddess is Coddess.
The dialogue—especially among the cat characters (the humans fare a little better) is so stylized as to be almost unbearable. “I wish to wreak revenge on the criminal who perpetuates this skulduggery on three innocent kittens.” Or maybe—as if it weren't bad enough the first time, “I do have earnest interest in identifying the malefactor in the Case of the Kitnapped Kittens.”
And for a reason I can hardly even guess at (cats live only in the present?), the cats only use the present tense—even if the action happened in the past. When Sue Slate asks Rex Boudoir, dashing cat abut town, whether he had witnessed a kidnapping the night before, she says, “You prowl the Alley nights. What do you see of the event?” It’s not only confusing, it is ridiculous and unnecessary.
The one bright spot in the book is its call to arms vis-à-vis the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. In fact, this motif in the book might have been developed into a serious medical thriller. The way that some of the cats have of comforting their People—such as an AIDS sufferer named Darlin’—is touching and realistic.
The bottom line is that there is no way that this book can be rated more than a 2, no mater what genre you put it in. Some, like me, might choose to give it less. So be careful what you publish in haste—it may come back to haunt you.
Note: I read the first Naiad printing of this novel.
Another 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.
The fact of the matter is that it is possible that Sue Slate, Private Eye is the very worst book in this talking-animal genre. In fact, if may be the worst of several genres, Lesbian Mystery among them. Many people have probably penned–or at least dreamed up—silly stories to tell to their young ones. Jane Austen did this; so did Sylvia Plath and Anne Frank. But none did it for publication, despite that some of these stories were discovered and placed before the public after the authors’ deaths. Why Naiad decided to place this one before us is indeed the mystery.
The basic plot is this. Beautiful chanteuse Tallulah Mimosa asks lesbian private eye Sue Slate to find three kittens that were in her care, but went missing. Sue, with the help of her one-legged brother, several alleycats, a parrot, and various People, she sets out to do just that.
The characters in Sue Slate, Private Eye are not just cardboard, they are wooden. In a spoof, this is sometimes permissible, but I still long for real connections among the characters—characters with interesting backstories, even if they are kittycats. Instead we have bad cat, mouse, and fish puns, where snowman is snowcat, myself is myselves, kidnapped is kitnapped, Atlas is Catlas, John Hancock is John Hancat, Old Spice Aftershave is Old Mice After Lick, and for some reason, Goddess is Coddess.
The dialogue—especially among the cat characters (the humans fare a little better) is so stylized as to be almost unbearable. “I wish to wreak revenge on the criminal who perpetuates this skulduggery on three innocent kittens.” Or maybe—as if it weren't bad enough the first time, “I do have earnest interest in identifying the malefactor in the Case of the Kitnapped Kittens.”
And for a reason I can hardly even guess at (cats live only in the present?), the cats only use the present tense—even if the action happened in the past. When Sue Slate asks Rex Boudoir, dashing cat abut town, whether he had witnessed a kidnapping the night before, she says, “You prowl the Alley nights. What do you see of the event?” It’s not only confusing, it is ridiculous and unnecessary.
The one bright spot in the book is its call to arms vis-à-vis the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. In fact, this motif in the book might have been developed into a serious medical thriller. The way that some of the cats have of comforting their People—such as an AIDS sufferer named Darlin’—is touching and realistic.
The bottom line is that there is no way that this book can be rated more than a 2, no mater what genre you put it in. Some, like me, might choose to give it less. So be careful what you publish in haste—it may come back to haunt you.
Note: I read the first Naiad printing of this novel.
Another 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.
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December 10, 2013I have no idea how to rate a book about gay detective cats.
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March 1, 2020I tried, really hard. I just couldn't with this.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews