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Robin Miller Mystery #2
Crazy for Loving
A Robin Miller mystery from the author of bestseller I Left My Heart. This novel finds Robin home in New York City working to win her own detective agency, solving a murder or two, and meeting the devastating K.T.
303 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1992
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About the author
Jaye Maiman
9 books11 followersJaye Maiman is the author of the Lambda Literary Award Winning mystery series featuring lesbian travel writer and romance novelist Robin Miller.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 19, 2020
Two years have passed since Robin’s sojourn in California. Because the sales of her romance novels tanked after she was outed, she has joined an ex-cop named Tony Serro in his Serro Investigative Agency in Brooklyn. Although sales of her novels have picked up in the last year—and have made her self-sufficient—she finds that she loves detective work even though Tony generally gives her the grunt duties. As Robin puts it: “I was developing a taste for trouble and I had a feeling I was in for a feast.”
And in this book, she gets it. First, she takes a case to find out who killed an elementary teacher in his classroom. Then a woman hires her to locate a man who deliberately infected her with HIV. To bring the matter home, her boss, Tony, is also suffering from HIV through a botched operation to remove a bullet. It is his illness that convinced him to hire Robin in the first place.
There is quite a bit of backstory here. At age 3, Robin accidently shot and killed her sister Carol with her father’s pistol. It made her wary of guns and caused her father never to speak to her from that date forward. Pretty heavy stuff. Here once ne’er-do-well is now a hard-working locksmith—and has supplied Robin with a few necessary breaking-and-entering tools.
Robin’s long-distance relationship with Cathy Chapman—who she met in California—has fizzled. It may not be polite to say that Robin was getting desperate, but when she meets beautiful Vanessa, she remarks to herself, “She was sexy and she could read. Not a bad combination at all.” In fact, Robin ends up sleeping with one of Vanessa’s friends, who is not only married, but a suspect in the murder of the schoolteacher. Her guilt over breaking her own rules is intensified tenfold with the woman is murdered the next day.
It has been several years between my reading of books 1 and 2, but I have the general feeling that book 2 is not quite as good. It is better than okay, but not extraordinary. This one was less emotional and more of a normal PI whodunit. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. Robin is not fearless, but she gets involved in more danger than any PI except maybe Nea Fox. Still, she survives and begins a budding relationship with chef K.T. Bellflower—which we will learn more about in the next book.
Odd note: Robin drives an old Plymouth Duster named Bella. Bella is also the name of the publisher that reprints Maiman’s Robin Miller novels. Coincidence? Probably, although the founders of Bella Books almost certainly would have been familiar with Maiman’s work.
Final Rating: 4.0
Note: I read a scanned copy of the first printing of this book which I borrowed from the Internet Archive library.
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.
And in this book, she gets it. First, she takes a case to find out who killed an elementary teacher in his classroom. Then a woman hires her to locate a man who deliberately infected her with HIV. To bring the matter home, her boss, Tony, is also suffering from HIV through a botched operation to remove a bullet. It is his illness that convinced him to hire Robin in the first place.
There is quite a bit of backstory here. At age 3, Robin accidently shot and killed her sister Carol with her father’s pistol. It made her wary of guns and caused her father never to speak to her from that date forward. Pretty heavy stuff. Here once ne’er-do-well is now a hard-working locksmith—and has supplied Robin with a few necessary breaking-and-entering tools.
Robin’s long-distance relationship with Cathy Chapman—who she met in California—has fizzled. It may not be polite to say that Robin was getting desperate, but when she meets beautiful Vanessa, she remarks to herself, “She was sexy and she could read. Not a bad combination at all.” In fact, Robin ends up sleeping with one of Vanessa’s friends, who is not only married, but a suspect in the murder of the schoolteacher. Her guilt over breaking her own rules is intensified tenfold with the woman is murdered the next day.
It has been several years between my reading of books 1 and 2, but I have the general feeling that book 2 is not quite as good. It is better than okay, but not extraordinary. This one was less emotional and more of a normal PI whodunit. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. Robin is not fearless, but she gets involved in more danger than any PI except maybe Nea Fox. Still, she survives and begins a budding relationship with chef K.T. Bellflower—which we will learn more about in the next book.
Odd note: Robin drives an old Plymouth Duster named Bella. Bella is also the name of the publisher that reprints Maiman’s Robin Miller novels. Coincidence? Probably, although the founders of Bella Books almost certainly would have been familiar with Maiman’s work.
Final Rating: 4.0
Note: I read a scanned copy of the first printing of this book which I borrowed from the Internet Archive library.
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.
August 9, 2021
Robin Miller is an apprentice P.I. entangled in an apparently open-and-shut case involving an elementary teacher.
Robin investigation brings her into the affairs of a big family where everyone has something to hide.
I didn't like it better than the first installment of the series, but it's not worse either. I like how stubborn and independent the protagonist is, but I also don't like how information often drops into her lap, specifically into her answering machine, with people leaving more and more revealing messages, as well as Robin's friends having friends who just so happen to owe them favours and just so happen to have access to information Robin needs. Those parts were bits of lazy writing but the rest was nice.
This novel depicts themes of racism, misogyny, addictive gambling, stalking, manic-depression, anger-management issues, gang violence and gang mentality, AIDS, and the omnipresent element in lesbian detective fiction: infidelity!
Robin investigation brings her into the affairs of a big family where everyone has something to hide.
I didn't like it better than the first installment of the series, but it's not worse either. I like how stubborn and independent the protagonist is, but I also don't like how information often drops into her lap, specifically into her answering machine, with people leaving more and more revealing messages, as well as Robin's friends having friends who just so happen to owe them favours and just so happen to have access to information Robin needs. Those parts were bits of lazy writing but the rest was nice.
This novel depicts themes of racism, misogyny, addictive gambling, stalking, manic-depression, anger-management issues, gang violence and gang mentality, AIDS, and the omnipresent element in lesbian detective fiction: infidelity!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews