Murder At The Nightwood Bar (1987) - Plot & Excerpts
Most books I rate five stars I know right away that it's possible. Oh, something might happen that lowers it, sometimes all the way to 1 star, or even no stars, but I tend to know. This one? Sneaked up on me. I figured for the longest time, while I was reading it, that it would likely end up being somewhere between a three and four star work. There wasn't really anything to put it there, just nothing that leapt out at me grabbed me by the neck and screamed "this will be a five star book". At least not till the last part of the book. Where it kind of hit me how deep the book was. How . . . bah.Mostly I was noticing things, before this revelation, like how this head homicide detective only seemed to get involved with women when they are part of her investigation. There's a back story there that may or may not be spoiler-y. Happened in the first book. Happened in this one. And they are the kind where people in need hook up, and not people in love. That's one of the things I noticed. It is not something I'd add or subtract stars for. The racial, homophobic annoyances that popped up in the first book were toned down. A lot of the things like that were toned down. Still there but milder. Which is odd, in a way, when you consider the plot of the book. heh. Right. I'm not great with reviews so I'll just leave it as normal. Just some notes randomly strewn about in a small "what do you thing" box.
This book was simply amazing! I read it under 24 hours and lost track of the number of times it made me cry! Forget Rizzoli and Isles this is a proper lesbian detective. This book was part murder mystery and also part social commentary. I bought a recent edition, 2003 and thought it was a modern book set in the 80s, but then I went back and saw that it was actually first published in 1985. It is such an interesting snapshot of the lesbian community at that time. Issues of women being out at work, gay bashing, gay pride, parents rejecting their children. It just hit you on so many levels. The writing was also really good, clear and straightforward like the main character Kate. It was really refreshing to read a lesbian book where the struggle towards a lesbian identity wasn't the focus. Though Kate was mostly in the closet at work she didn't have any issues with her sexuality which was quite refreshing to read. It gave a great perspective on the homophobia that the characters had to face. Reading the book I felt like I really grew to know the murder victim and felt really sad for her loss. I almost wish she'd been a live character at some point as I felt for her so strongly. Without a doubt one of the best novels I've read in ages. Before I was finished I went and bought the next one.
What do You think about Murder At The Nightwood Bar (1987)?
I really enjoyed this book, definitely more than I did Amateur City (the first in the series). I guess the murder was a more interesting one to read about - 19-year-old girl outside a gay nightbar, instead of a middle-aged business man, with its supporting cast of characters being mostly all the other lesbians who frequent said bar rather than more boring old business men :P It also reminded me a LOT of an episode of SVU, which I guess added to the interest? I could get into it more because of that, and there seemed to be more mystery this time as well, more piecing together. (view spoiler)[And this time, the obvious one WASN'T the culprit! I didn't suspect the mother at ALL! Wow the killing of her husband was gruesome too, as was her confession. What. A. Psycho. (hide spoiler)]
—Sally
I usually read a book I think I won't like after I read a book that I absolutely loved. Perhaps this is a strange process, but I'm always afraid something moderately good will suffer by comparison. After all, don't we date bad people so that we'll know exceptional when we see it? This book was actually not as bad as I expected, it was at least entertaining. I'm not really sure how all these mystery books get in my house, but perhaps it has something to do with the number of houseguests I have in a year.
—Syd
