Hancock Park

Kate Delafield #8

by Katherine V. Forrest

Detective Kate Delafield and her partner, Joe Cameron, head for the exclusive, wealthy neighborhood of Hancock Park to investigate the execution-style murder of Victoria Talbot, the cultured, refined mother of three, a crime in which the victim's ex-husband becomes an all-too-convenient suspect. By the Lambda Award-winning author of Curious Wine. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, LGBT, Fiction, Lesbian Fiction, Crime, Queer, Lesbian

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Katherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have now read all of the Kate Delafield books and have found that as a series I have really enjoyed them. They cover a point in history where female cops were few and far between, where being a lesbian was really a private matter to anyone outside your circle and society was not as welcoming as it is now. Kate navigates that in her usual stoic self bit the cracks are finally showing in her veneer. While she now has a partner who is more accepting and a department that is less homophobic, her private life is crumbling because she can't leave the cop at the station. The mystery and case involve domestic violence and murder and Kate has to deal with her newly found homophobic brother and trans niece. Oh, and pick up the pieces of a court case that goes awry on her watch. I wish there were more of these stories, but Katherine V. Forrest paved the way for lots of women who now write in the genre. Thanks so much for being a trailblazer.

[Scriptmonkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Delafield moves back into the 3-star category with this 8th entry in the series.

Why? Mainly because she didn't remove a supporting character between books but also because she effectively showed Kate's evolution on her stance regarding transgender people. As for the case, as Kate ultimately declares later, who cares? It was another instance of no resolution nor satisfaction for the reader. "But that's real life!" "Ah, true. But real life kinda sucks."

Anyway...

It got off to a rocky 1 or 2-star start for me because of Kate's description of Muhammad Ali as a world champion boxer and Vietnam war draft dodger. He did not "dodge" the draft in the typically pejorative sense of the term. He objected to it on religious and moral grounds and, when the draft board rejected that because of racism, he was sentenced to jail. Ultimately, the conviction was overturned. He did not run to another country, get into college, nor claim some fake physical problem to avoid it.

At home, Kate is a drunk in denial and Aimee has grown tired of not always getting her way immediately. Okay, it's more complex than that, but since we only get Kate's perspective (Book #5, Liberty Square aside), what we get is a spoiled and selfish Aimee nagging and pouting when she doesn't get her way. Yes, Kate is an alcoholic but Aimee has had many scenes where she brings her a drink, so don't act so innocent. She's absent for most of the book, because there's no point developing this dead-end character who hasn't been interesting since Book 3. It appears she is gone for good in the next book and I hope she stays gone.

I'd prefer it if Forrest didn't slide into the courtroom drama story again. Both times she's done it, it's felt gimmicky. But worse, both times the characters are repeating information multiple times we learned outside of the courtroom during the investigation.

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed reading Katherine V. Forrest books. Yes, I read Curious wine years ago. I have also read the Kate Delafield series and the stories have kept me entertained for years. I was pleased to see that she had written another book in the series. Kate and her partner Joe are challenged with a crime in an upscale neighborhood. Oh my gosh, a murder has taken place or was it a murder. The reference to O.J. Simpson was interesting. I liked how the various puzzle pieces were put together. I too was sorting pieces as I read.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was attracted by the title since Hancock Park is where I grew up. Doubt the author ever visited the area or was familiar with the residents.

[Megan]

In my review of Murder by Tradition, I characterize the story as a “courtroom drama”—a fairly unsuccessful one because the verdict—and the actions of the jury afterward—are so unbelievable. This book is better, not only because Forrest has grown as a writer, but because the verdict is more in keeping with the real world and because we get to see the whole courtroom process. In fact, the story starts in the courtroom with Detective Kate Delafield on the witness stand in a murder investigation. After each scene in the courtroom is a flashback to the actual investigation, where all the pieces of the puzzle are presented.

As a courtroom drama, the book is a great success. It is also a well-plotted whodunit with the added bonus of not appearing to be a whodunit at all. Although Forrest gives us important clues, we, like Kate in the novel, are content to dismiss them when an obvious suspect is arrested.

Yes, Kate’s homophobic lost brother turns up again Seems that his 16-year-old daughter has gender issues and has run away from home. Kate’s search for her acts kind of like an intermission between courtroom sessions. Introduced is the subject of transgender issues, which even Kate is nonplussed by. Interspersed with this search is Kate’s estrangement from Aimee, who finally gets fed up with Kate’s morose secretiveness and her drinking, and packs her bags

At first, I was not sorry to see Aimee go. She is—and has been since she first appeared—one of the weakest characters in the Kate Delafield series. She is simply there. After some thought, though, I begin to wonder whether we see Aimee as Kate sees her: pretty window dressing, a comfortable pillow to come home to after a hard day’s detecting. It doesn't make me like her any better, but it might explain why.

Will Kate bond with her new “nephew”? Will she be more open with Aimee and stop her excessive drinking? Will she choose to retire after the sobering courtroom verdict? We won’t know until the next book.

Final Rating: 4

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.

[Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

[English version of this review can be found below.]

Dieses Review fällt mir nicht leicht, denn "Vollrausch" hat starke aber widersprüchliche Gefühle in mir ausgelöst. Das Buch sollte eine Triggerwarnung vor transphoben Inhalten haben. Eine bestimmte Szene war sehr unangenehm zu lesen. Insbesondere da man an der Stelle noch nicht versteht in welchen Kontext das Buch sie setzen wird. Ich hätte das Buch an dieser Stelle fast abgebrochen. (Es ist mir schwer gefallen der Autorin hier zu vertrauen, denn ich wusste nicht wie sie über Transmenschen denkt und im Bezug auf das Thema Bisexualität habe ich mich bei ihr nicht immer gut aufgehoben gefühlt.) Es ist gut, dass ich dem Buch trotzdem noch eine Chance gegeben habe, denn es löst sich dann alles noch anders auf als ich befürchtet hatte. Tatsächlich würde ich dem Buch eine sehr starke und positive Aussagen bescheinigen. Vielleicht kann es sogar die ein oder andere TERF zum Überdenken ihrer Position anregen.

It's not easy for me to write this review, because I have strong but conflicting feelings about "Hancock Park". This book should come with a trigger warning for transphobic content. One scene in particular was unsettling to read. Especially because the reader cannot foresee the context the book will construct around it. I almost quit reading the book at this point. (I found it hard to trust the author regarding this topic, because I didn't know what she thinks about trans people and with regards of bisexuality her books have not always been a save space.) However it's good I gave the book a second chance, because it resolves quite differently than I feared. In fact the message of this book is strong and positive. I would actually argue that this book has a strong and positive message. It might even cause some TERFs to rethink their position.

[Sandybear76]

Detective Kate (50ish) is investigating a death that could be a suicide or murder. The time goes between the investigation and the court trail. Kate is a bit detracted by her "wife" left without warning and is not returning Kate's calls.

set in LA, CA

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. One of the betters ones of the last few books. I didn’t hate this at all. Wasn’t amazing but it held my interest and I liked the character growth for Kate. Her niece has run away from and even though Kate’s brother now wants nothing to do with Kate because she’s a lesbian he calls and asks her to help. Kate refuses even when he tells her that his daughter is also a lesbian. Aimee is upset and leaves Kate for a while. I loved that Kate had to work her shit out on her own (with the help of her therapist ofc). She had a lot going on. This was good. I liked that Dylan came out as MTF transgender to Kate and while Kate was against it at first she did come around to acknowledging him as his nephew. Pretty good read.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of this genre realize that the initial suspect is rarely the ultimate culprit. Nevertheless, this is a well written murder mystery which goes into great detail about police investigative and criminal court procedure. The fact that the protagonist is a lesbian is almost irrelevant. There is a minor arc about her relationship with her partner and the search for her niece, a suspected lesbian. But these are told with pathos and knowledge. Kate has similar problems with relationships as any heterosexual couple.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy a good mystery, and I also love the lesbian cop theme, however this one missed the mark for me. I found it to be a bit dry and felt no connection to any of the characters.

[Jen Keyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's finally nice to see some type of Kate coming to the realization about things in her life.

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Elizabeth]

No more books available in series.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

All right, Katherine Forrest, ya got me. You wrote a book I spent 7/8 of wanting to throw the protagonist out the window and then pulled the rug out from under me. For most of the book, I was so angry at this character: the Kate Delafield who justified and denied her alcoholism, blamed everyone and everything but herself for her relationship problems, sleepwalked through her investigation, and showed a startling lack of understanding and empathy toward her trans nephew, wasn't the Kate Delafield I remembered from The Beverly Malibu and Liberty Square .

Then! In the 11th hour, Kate has her come-to-Jesus epiphany, the moment where she--and we as the reader--realize that all of this asshaberdashery was a very deliberate choice on Forrest's part, that the chickens of Delafield's years of drinking, being closeted, and investigating gruesome homicides had finally come home to roost. Which was kinda cool. And while her complete 180 is somewhat implausible, Forrest portrays it with a deft touch that made it seem less so.

The problem is that, by that point, I was so disengaged from Delafield--and the story--that the reversal was too little too late. It doesn't help that, while Forrest shines at the police investigation parts of police procedurals, the courtroom parts were so. flipping. boring. that I could barely drag myself through them.

I also had a huge problem with the way the jacket synopsis in no way meshed with what the book was actually about. That's not Forrest's fault, but it is a problem with how the publisher chose to put the book forward, which makes it a problem with the book-as-object that I can't entirely overlook.

I will say that I'm quite looking forward to reading the next (and currently last) book in the series, High Desert , to see if we get to hold onto the new and improved Kate Delafield.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Hancock Park: A Kate Delafield Mystery, by Catherine V. Forrest, a-minus, borrowed from the National Library Services for the Blind.

This is one of the later Kate Delafield novels. She and her newer more enlightened police partner, are called to the scene of a murder in a house in Hancock Park, a rich area of Los Angeles. The house is super-clean, although the victim, Victoria Talbot, is not known for housekeeping. Victoria has been shot, and the person who most clearly stood out as a suspect was her ex-husband, who stalks her and is still very possessive. Their children hate their father and call him by his first name, and have nothing to do with him. He is arrested and charged with the murder and tried. But the prosecution doesn’t have enough evidence for the jury to convict him and he is set free after the jury declares a mistrial. Kate and her partner, still believing that he is guilty, set out to gather better information to re-try the case. But, despite his horrible character, is he really the murderer? Also, Kate and her partner are having problems caused in part by her drinking, and Kate finds her niece who ran away from her parents, although it appears her niece is really her nephew. A wonderful series, good police procedurals with added interest about Kate’s lesbian life.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still love Kate, though now I've read and *own* all 8 of her books. I think the problem with these books is that they are too short! And the author refers to events that happened to Kate in the past, but then they are not described in any of the previous books, which I find confusing. In this book she moves on to the trans issue, in a really positive and inclusive way. Disappointingly, there was no romance in this book, but Aimee and Kate go through some issues - very realistic, I guess, but still. I did like how the author addressed Kate's relationship to her new-found brother & wife, and how she makes Kate examine herself and some of her issues. I do wish these books were longer and that there was more time to do into all this stuff in more detail... oh well. The mystery part in the book was also pretty good, not too mind bending, and easy to follow, just right for me. I really hope there will be more books, to fill in some of the gaps.

[Alma · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes reading the book rewarding for me is the controlled, spare, concise prose that in its stark simplicity conveys the dynamics between two people -specifically, between two women - in a long-term relationship with depth and feeling. Unfortunately Ms. Forrest's calibre of writing is painfully absent from the majority of amateurish works flooding the market. Authors I would recommend as exceptional, especially if you're interested chiefly in reading work written about women by women include Laurie R. King (Martinelli series), Ellen Hart, Sandra Scoppettone, Nicola Griffith, and Jenifer Levin.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this right after #2, "Murder at the Nightwood Bar," and was struck by how Delafield's world has changed considerably between 1987 and 2005. She's a senior police detective, struggling with whether to be open with her sexual orientation at work, drinking too much, and having conflicts with her much-younger partner about same. Also, there's a murder case to be considered -- told in flashbacks from the courtroom. The case is pretty gruesome (though not as horrible as "Nightwood"). There's an interesting subplot centering around the boundaries between butch and trans, and the associated changes in lesbian culture.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a quick read. A mystery novel with a hint of lesbianism (Kate the detective is gay). It was a good book....your normal mystery fiction novel. I was not able to figure out who it was until the end!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Of course you had the murder, investigation and trial but it was more. It was about family and how they can sometimes become fractured. Can they be fixed? Do they want to be fixed? Should they be fixed?

[Sue Frampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

KVF does it again with a Delafield mystery. A great read and at a pace that keeps your turning the pages from begining go end.

[AGC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, well written, interesting characters and story. Better than most lesbian fiction.

[Josy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!A "good read" and I learned a lot about myself.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Katherine V Forrest, filled with "the personal is the political" themes, hard choices & real life dilemmas that defy simple answers.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slightly lesbian Law & Order episode ... good of its kind, too.

[Andrea L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun quirky setting.