Just a Little Lie

Alison Kaine Mystery #4

by Kate Allen

You promised No Dead Bodies! Mistress Anastasia, the lovely leather femme has every right to be irritated with her butch girlfriend, Alison Kaine. A mystery is the last thing she needs at her leather event. On leave from the Denver PD and relegated to driving the airport shuttle, Alison cannot ignore the undercurrent of malice and deception beneath the bantering and blatant sexuality. Can Alison work quickly enough to uncover old feuds and secrets - or will someone go home as cargo?

Genres: Mystery, Lesbian, BDSM, Lesbian Fiction, Crime, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Running their own weekend leather retreat

But what happens next?!?!

The Denver leather community is hosting a weekend retreat, with no-show volunteers, exes fighting then f*¢%ing, blackmail & rumors, abuses of power, questionable consent, & both main couples on the brink of destruction being unfaithful, ungrateful & unhappy. One helluva 3 days no doubt… but…
… the ending, WTF??? Can't believe this book is the last & so many unfinished & unresolved storylines just leaving us all hanging?!?! Man…

[Consuelo Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found book late but glad I did

I wasn't sure if the books were going to be good but I was wrong. The first book had me and that was all she wrote. I loved the characters, plot, mixed feelings and everything in between. I know the series old but I would love one more. I feel torn because of the secrets Allison and Michelle have kept. Crazy as it is, I need closure. Oh well..Will have to come up something in my head.

[Marybeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this whole series. It completely captures a period in lesbian history with humor and sass. The great BDSM is violence against women argument, the Michigan Womyns Music Festivals, Womyns Land, and just how small a community can get with exes around are all included and really well drawn. If you came of age in the 70's you will completely relate. And if you didn't you will just enjoy the setting and the characters. Kate Allen is a great writer.

[Megan]

The last book in the Allison Kaine series may be the best one of all—and that is saying something. This time, Allison , her girlfriend Stacy, Stacy’s best friend Liz, and a few other regulars of the series host a leatherwomen conference in Denver. They have rented a mansion for the occasion and fitted it out with conference rooms, safe rooms, and even dungeons where attendees can act out play dates.

One of the women, Livia, who has a bad reputation among the other leather dykes, hires Allison to find out who is sending her what seem to be threatening notes. Allison, who is suffering badly from her fibromyalgia, takes the case to earn a little extra money. Meanwhile, another attendee named Scar—who has an even worse rep than Livia—tells Allison she fears that something bad is happening at the conference that may involve minors.

In this book—even more than the first three—the plot of the mystery ties in so closely with the other happenings that it is almost seamless. It describes in vivid detail what the world of leather dykes and s/m is really like. This is because the mansion set up for the conference is a microcosm of the leather world—everything can happen and it can happen to anyone. Beatings, floggings, humiliation scenes, fantasies, slave-keeping, and many other things you didn’t realize fell under either love or sex. As Liz says, after cruising the conference for a couple of days and finally picking up a big butch: “I’ve got a date!” she sang. “I’m the best shark in town and I’ve got a date with a hot woman who is going to let me buff her boots before she beats me black and blue and fucks me in the ass with a night stick. God. Life is good!” “I truly am envious,” Allison said. Tell me, is there a better voice in lesbian literature? I’m not being sarcastic: this is brilliant writing and I truly am envious.

But even with all this kinky stuff going on, Allison is mostly an observer. This gives her time to take in and describe what she sees and hears. And what she sees is just about the most exotic group of women ever described. Tattoos, high heels, whips, costumes, butches and femmes—even butches who turn into femmes! Topping and bottoming and all the other lingo of this demimonde.

The mysteries (there are more than one) give the reader—and the detractors of the s/m lifestyle—a lesson in what is not a crime (safe, consensual sex in all its permutations) and what is (child abuse, for instance, an underlying cause of some of the characters’ neuroses, and a general disregard for the well-being of others).

Another plus in this final book is the very strong presence of Marta Goinoccia, the protagonist of I Knew You Would Call. In fact, one of the few disappointments of this book—and the series—is that Allison and Marta’s relationship is left unresolved. Allison obviously has special feelings for Marta, and Marta’s plea to Allison to please leave her alone is one of the most poignant I have ever read. It is as if Allison has two personalities, one that fits Stacy and one more comfortable with Marta. Her friend Michelle’s problems with her wife Janka are also unresolved, as is Michelle’s affair with Persimmon. The story of young Carla—the teen who took Allison’s s/m virginity—is also in limbo.

The book seems to hint that Allison’s fibromyalgia syndrome will cause her to resign from the police department and take a job as Liz’s legal investigator. And I can even envision Liz occasionally hiring Marta Goincoccia to help psychically. But Allen has not written a book in almost two decades. She is one of the few writers whose style makes it obvious that writing is a joy. Why did she stop? Did she die? Because Kate Allen is not her real name, we may never know. What she has left us, though, ranks at the very top of the lesbian mystery genre.

Note: I read the first New Victoria 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.

[Wayne Spiceland · Rating 5 out of 5]

After fairly glowing comments about Kate Allen’s first two Alison Kaine mysteries, I gave book 3 in the series only 3 stars, citing Alison’s character change -- just too damned weepy, and lacking the resolve of the earlier books -- and an overall “downer” mood in the first part of the novel. Once Stacy and Liz appeared on the scene, of course, the book was “saved“, at least in my never very humble opinion.

I’m happy to report that, in Just A Little Lie, Allen returns to the spirited tone of Tell Me What You Like and Give My Secrets Back. In fact, the final volume of the series, set at a leather conference, is more rambunctious and madcap than ever. While the earlier books had lots of grins and chuckles and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, here, Allen’s unique sense of humor permeates the entire work. Someone wrote that …Lie isn’t as “side-splittingly funny” as the earlier volumes. While I disagree, it’s possible that the elevated level of jocularity throughout makes it seem so: The highs don’t seem as high because the whole level of levity is intensified.

Of course, as always in the Alison Kaine Mysteries. there are serious elements: Bodies? Always, when Alison’s around. Relationship drama? Sure. The tension provided by Alison’s fibromyalgia, and her secrecy, definitely affect Alison & Stacy’s relationship. Once Alison finally comes out to her girlfriend about it, Stacy’s reaction is quite predictable. Despite her hurricane-level tantrums, perpetual PMS-ing, the flirtatious femme is nothing if not loyal. In fact, I think there’s a good bit about loyalty in this series, to lovers, to friends, and to community. Beneath the veneer of amusing banter, piercing barbs, and, from time to time, seriously hot, kinky sex, loyalty is the main theme here.

But, enough philosophizing. Whatever underlying message may exist, Just A Little Lie is totally unbridled good fun, with an interesting enough mystery to move the story along. The vibrantly-depicted characters are an absolute joy to read about, and, seriously, how can you go wrong with a book that has a character called “fuckbaby.“ Damn, I wish like hell there were another Alison Kaine mystery waiting on my “to read” stack. May eventually even have to read the Marta Coicochea novel -- though I disliked her in the two Alison books she appeared in -- just to get a fresh Kate Allen fix.

[Christie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I flat out dislike Just a Little Lie. We have Alison cheating on Stacy, Michelle cheating on Janka. Alison has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and is on leave from the police force, but hasn't told her girlfriend Stacy any of this.

The setting is a lesbian BDSM conference held in Denver and organized by Stacy and her lawyer friend and fellow leather aficionado Liz. Alison is presented as having remade herself to be extremely butch in order to please extremely femme Stacy. And Alison has lost all the capability and strength that made her such an exciting character in the first book of the series.

It turns out that the lesbian leather community is very small, everyone dishes on everyone else. Former lovers Patty and Patty alternately fight like wildcats throughout the conference. A skanky congenital liar named Scar haunts Alison. The Women Against Violence Against Women are not just picketing, but launching actions.

In the midst of all this is Livia, who arrives with her own private coterie, including a naked slavegirl on a leash, a designated gofer named "Best Boy" for the weekend, and dozens of other hangers-on. Livia has to top everything and everyone., and she will do it with hundred dollar bills if she can't find another way. She hires Alison to find out who is blackmailing Livia.

Livia is Bad News and a creepy bitch by any definition. There's a lot of blurring the lines between consensual and not with her group. They are doing booze and drugs while holding scenes, which is totally Not Cool. Livia does a bit of ritual bullshit in which she dresses as a bishop and passes out "communion" to kneeling volunteers. One of the wafers is roofied, and the volunteers know that whoever gets the drugged wafer, Livia is going to Do Them However She Wants, but again, drugs and lack of meaningful consent raise my hackles.

By the end of the novel, I was only too glad to see the characters getting back on the planes and getting the hell out of Denver. The blackmailer is discovered, lawyer Liz throws a wrench into WVAWA's actions by catching them on film committing vandalism and trespass, and Livia gets her comeuppance. This one I will not be reading again.

[Sarah Wellington]

Love the character Allison Kaine. Can't wait to read her latest escapades.