Hallowed Murder


Ellen Hart - 1989
    That's when alumnae advisor, Jane Lawless, steps in to find out the truth. Assisted by her irrepressible sidekick Cordelia, Jane searches for clues, and what she finds is as chilling as the Minnesota winter. At a lonely vacation lodge, amidst the icy snow drifts, she risks her life to ensnare a cunning killer.Nominated: 1990 Minnesota Book Award for Best Crime FictionNominated: 1989 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian MysteryNominated: 1996 Golden Earphones Award (Audio World), Best Unabridged BookWinner: 1996 Golden Earphones Award (Audio World), Best Reader of an unabridged work, Carol Jordan Stewart for her reading of Hallowed Murder

A Matter of Blood


Catherine Maiorisi - 2018
    But when she’s ordered to kill to prove her loyalty, she aborts the operation without having identified the leaders. Now, Corelli is the one exposed. With her brothers and sisters in blue ostracizing her, can she trust Detective P.J. Parker to watch her back?Parker is the daughter of a vehement critic of the NYPD. But that doesn’t stop her from wanting to work in the homicide division. And wanting to learn from the best. Unfortunately, Chiara Corelli is the best…even if she is the most hated detective in the department.Without Parker, Corelli will be condemned to desk duty. Corelli is Parker’s only chance to work in homicide. Will the two women put aside their fears and join forces to solve a brutal murder and identify the leaders of the dirty cops before they get to Corelli’s family?Editor: Ann RobertsCover Designer: Judith FellowsGenre: Mystery

The Kill Club


Wendy Heard - 2019
    Their foster mother, Carol, has always been fanatical, but with Jazz grown up and out of the house, Carol takes a dangerous turn that threatens thirteen-year-old Joaquin’s life. Over and over, child services fails to intervene, and Joaquin is running out of time.Then Jazz gets a blocked call from someone offering a solution. There are others like her—people the law has failed. They’ve formed an underground network of “helpers,” each agreeing to eliminate the abuser of another. They’re taking back their power and leaving a trail of bodies throughout Los Angeles—dubbed the Blackbird Killings. If Jazz joins them, they’ll take care of Carol for good.All she has to do is kill a stranger.

The Price of Fame


Lynn Ames - 2004
    Jamison "Jay" Parker is an intensely career-driven Time magazine reporter; she has experienced love once, from afar, and given up on finding it again...That is, until circumstance and an assignment bring her into contact with her past. Kate and Jay's lives intertwine, leading them on a journey to love and happiness, until fate and fame threaten to tear them apart. What is the price of fame? For Kate the cost just might be everything. For Jay, the price could be the other half of her soul.

A Study In Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes


Joseph R.G. DeMarco - 2007
    Edited by noted mystery author Joseph R. G. DeMarco, A Study in Lavender queers the Holmes universe; the authors have devised stories in which Holmes and Watson are lovers, or investigate mysteries of inverts hidden from the laws and cultures of the Victorian era; even the indomitable Lestrade has his turn at love; and where strange lights similar to the work of Jules Verne draw the detectives to infamous Cleveland Street.

Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary


Monica Nolan - 2007
    Lois Lenz was like any other wholesome former cheerleader with a knack for office skills--until she took a job at Sather & Sterling in bustling Bay City. Spending her days in the cut-throat typing pool and her nights at the all-women's residence of Magdalena Arms, Lois had no idea she was entering a world of working girls whose passionate desires--and fabulous fashion sense--could lead any innocent lamb astray. . .Netta--serious and smart, she's unlike any woman Lois has known. . .Maxie--The height of society fashion, and girls are so very in style. . .Pamela--Lois's old high school Pep Squad pal certainly has changed. . .Miss Gill--the office manager has secrets and plenty of file cabinets to keep them in. . .Dolly--an actress whose martini shaker is as busy as her love life. . .Mrs. Pierson--"The hyena," Lois's boss, her office is a place of hard work and private dictation. . .And many more!Lois Lenz--she was a good girl a long way from home about to discover that not everything is what it seems, navy is a bad suit choice, and love can bloom in the strangest of places. . .

Out of Order


Lynn Galli - 2016
    James, political problem solver, is tasked with fixing the issue. Used to dealing with all kinds of legal ramifications and potential publicity nightmares, Lindsay has never had much trouble resolving these situations in the past. When she enlists the help of a sassy but all too lovely superior court judge, she finds her focus blurred for the first time in her life. Mid-election, it’s the exact wrong time for a fixer to lose sight of the end goal, and the mayor doesn’t help matters by changing political strategy. As Lindsay’s personal life is firing up, her professional life starts crumbling around her. Will this be the first professional problem she’s unable to fix? Or will she need to choose where to point her focus? NOTE: The first eight chapters of Out of Order were previously published in the anthology, Finally, under the title, Objection. Out of Order is an expanded short, which includes six all new chapters.

Report for Murder


Val McDermid - 1987
    Tensions are running high over the school's financial problems; the fact that school alumna and reknowned musician Lorna Smith-Couper, will return to the school to perform at a benefit concert only exacerbates anxieties. When Smith-Couper is found strangled with her own cello string right before the concert, Lindsay and Cordelia find their new relationship tested in unique ways as they seek to find the murderer among a long list of suspects.

No Good Reason


Cari Hunter - 2015
    I can’t do any of this without her.”Detective Sanne Jensen (not blonde, not tall, definitely not Scandinavian) and Dr. Meg Fielding (scruffy, scatterbrained, prone to swearing at patients) are lifelong best friends, sharing the same deprived background and occasionally the same bed.When a violent kidnapping stuns the Peak District village of Rowlee, both women become involved in the case. As Sanne and her colleagues in East Derbyshire Special Ops search for the culprit, and Meg fights to keep his victim alive, a shocking discovery turns the investigation on its head. With the clock ticking, Sanne and Meg find themselves pushed closer by a crime that threatens to tear everything apart.

Idaho Code


Joan Opyr - 2006
    Especially when murder and homophobia are stalking the streets. For Wilhelmina “Bil” Hardy, trapped in the coils of her eccentric family and off-the-wall friends, neither the course of true love nor amateur sleuthing runs smooth. Mistaken identity, misunderstandings, and mysteries galore take Bil to places she’s never dreamed of visiting.Idaho Code is a funny book about love, family, and the freedom you can find in a state that values individuality more than common sense.Joan Opyr’s hobbies are politics, politics, and politics, though, for the sake of variation, she has been known occasionally to dance the polka.

Asset Management


Annette Mori - 2015
    For the past eighteen months, they have been moving the assets of the rapacious bank executives to the more deserving coffers—at least in their minds—of the poor and middle class. When a mysterious woman keeps crossing paths with Toni, sparks fly. Is it a coincidence or all part of some greater master plan? Is she friend or foe? Add the Russian mob, the FBI, and an all-female covert organization and you have the perfect recipe for danger, intrigue, and even love. Does the trio join forces with the organization? Follow the twists and turns to the explosive conclusion. Not everything is black and white. There are many shades of gray and sometimes it’s difficult to decipher who is good and who is evil. No one is all virtue or all malevolence, but sometimes love helps us rise above.

Veritas


Anne Laughlin - 2009
    For Beth Ellis, Grafton College and its faculty and students are her home and family. But the president of the college rubs everyone the wrong way, the new English professor on campus isn't much more popular, and Beth has her hands full trying to keep the peace as various campus factions quarrel. Still, she didn't expect a tenure battle to end in murder. Sally Sullivan left the Chicago police homicide division and returned to her hometown where, as chief of police, she expected her greatest challenges to be dealing with car accidents and drunk drivers. But faced with a murder investigation with more motives than evidence and an inexperienced staff, Sally finds small-town policing isn't as simple as she thought. Neither are her growing feelings for Beth Ellis. As Sally and Beth's different worlds collide, their desire to solve the murder is complicated by their unexpected attraction. A second murder on campus places the survival of the college itself, their tenuous relationship, and even their lives in jeopardy.

Passion Bay


Jennifer Fulton - 1992
    When Boston securities broker, Annabel Worth inherits remote Moon Island, she travels there to solve a mystery that has haunted her family. Dumped by her lover, laid off from her job, New Zealander Cody Stanton flees to the island seeking solace and solitude. Both women are burdened with secrets that could destroy the passion that ignites between them. When Hurricane Mary strikes, each must make a choice that will change her life forever.

The Wrong Place at the Right Time


M.E. Tudor - 2012
    She is stunned when she sees Mary in the lesbian leather bar known for sexual promiscuity.Mary gets cornered by three predatory women in the bar and Jackie comes to her rescue, which leads to an erotic encounter between the two of them.Mary and Jackie try to ignore each other after the encounter but their attraction to each other is too strong. As their sexual relationship starts becoming romantic, will the two women be able to conquer their fears to have something more.

Almost Famous Women: Stories


Megan Mayhew Bergman - 2015
    Now Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, resurrects these women, lets them live in the reader's imagination, so we can explore their difficult choices. Nearly every story in this dazzling collection is based on a woman who attained some celebrity—she raced speed boats or was a conjoined twin in show business; a reclusive painter of renown; a member of the first all-female, integrated swing band. We see Lord Byron's illegitimate daughter, Allegra; Oscar Wilde's troubled niece, Dolly; West With the Night author Beryl Markham; Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister, Norma. These extraordinary stories travel the world, explore the past (and delve into the future), and portray fiercely independent women defined by their acts of bravery, creative impulses, and sometimes reckless decisions.The world hasn't always been kind to unusual women, but through Megan Mayhew Bergman's alluring depictions they finally receive the attention they deserve. Almost Famous Women is a gorgeous collection from an "accomplished writer of short fiction" (Booklist).