Rafferty Street

Morton River Valley #3

by Lee Lynch

Fans of Lee Lynch will be pleased to find this sequel to Dusty's Queen of Hearts Diner, featuring Anne Heaphy, an ex New York cabbie who moves to rural Massachusetts to start a new life. But when she is suspended from her new job as a driver of physically challenged clients, accused of intimacy with a young woman who has Downs Syndrome, Anne must battle not only to be re-installed but also for her reputation and sense of self worth. In the process she finds out who her friends really are, and also her lover, when she meets down-to-earth, sexy Chantelle.

Genres: Lesbian

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Lee 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.

Reviews

[Geekdgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say that this series of novels just sucked me in. I love the cast of characters that originated in Toothpick House and it was awesome to watch them (and the world around them) change through the decades. I kept staying up late to find out what would happen next.

Reading about homophobia and how it impacts those living in a small community was a reminder of the importance of activism and relationships. Watching how the relationships the characters built with others created more acceptance and support was an excellent demonstration of how change happens. Lee Lynch captured a picture of Americana, from the gay perspective and it was fascinating to watch the tales unfold.

Revisiting the story of Annie Heaphy and seeing how her life had developed was also a welcome journey. I enjoyed connecting with her in Toothpick House and coming back to her story was like catching up with an old friend. By following the journey from Toothpick House, through Dusty's Queen of Hearts Diner and Morton River Valley to wind up on Rafferty Street was a warm, engaging jaunt through the lives of many women and the community that surrounds them.

[M.E. Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rafferty Street by Lee Lynch was originally published in 1998 by New Victoria Publishers. It would be great to say that times have changed but the struggle that Lynch describes is still going on today. We still have groundswells of homophobia dwelling in small and large communities. And still, it is the emotional upheaval in individuals and the strength from our friends.

Rafferty Street continues the characters from Dusty's Queen of Heats Diner and Morton River. She is still continuing to write today.