Overview
"INTELLIGENT AND ENGROSSING . . . A VERY COMPLEX PUZZLE."—Publishers Weekly
Everyone knows Arno Heywood. He's been a Minneapolis TV personality for years. So when he jumps to his death from a downtown high-rise, it's a shocker—especially since he dies wearing women's clothes, a suicide in drag.
In chic Linden Lofts, where Arno lived, the other tenants are spooked, and smart investigator Jane Lawless soon finds out why. They, like Arno, have secrets to conceal, and the shadowy someone with a full set of keys who's scouting out their apartments may soon make that impossible. Can one of Linden Loft's upscale professionals really be an aspiring blackmailer? Before Jane and her pal Cordelia can make sure, a brutal murder ups the ante. . . .
"The plot resonates with fascinating details, a good bit of action, several keen twists, and a soupçon of romance for the protagonist."
—Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
"The characters are diverse and well rounded, the plot is intriguing, and the style lively and literate."
—The Armchair Detective
The crossdressing suicide of a TV personality leads Jane Lawless to an upscale high-rise that's home to a motley crew of scared, suspicious tenants--and at least one killer. Previously published by Seal Press.
Synopsis
"INTELLIGENT AND ENGROSSING . . . A VERY COMPLEX PUZZLE."
—Publishers Weekly
Everyone knows Arno Heywood. He's been a Minneapolis TV personality for years. So when he jumps to his death from a downtown high-rise, it's a shocker—especially since he dies wearing women's clothes, a suicide in drag.
In chic Linden Lofts, where Arno lived, the other tenants are spooked, and smart investigator Jane Lawless soon finds out why. They, like Arno, have secrets to conceal, and the shadowy someone with a full set of keys who's scouting out their apartments may soon make that impossible. Can one of Linden Loft's upscale professionals really be an aspiring blackmailer? Before Jane and her pal Cordelia can make sure, a brutal murder ups the ante. . . .
"The plot resonates with fascinating details, a good bit of action, several keen twists, and a soupçon of romance for the protagonist."
—Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
"The characters are diverse and well rounded, the plot is intriguing, and the style lively and literate."
—The Armchair Detective
Publishers Weekly
From its opening, in which local TV personality Arno Heywood dresses up as a woman before leaping to his death from the top of the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis, restaurateur Jane Lawless's sixth outing (following A Small Sacrifice) is intelligent and engrossing. Lawless, entering middle age and still mourning the not so recent death of her lover, Christine, is drawn into a dangerous situation when her old sorority sister Roz asks for help. Someone has been rearranging things in the compulsive Roz's apartment-a spectacular loft in a converted warehouse, which was owned by Heywood. Soon, the crimes on the premises escalate to murder. It looks like the culprit lives in the building-all of whose residents have ties to the charismatic Heywood. At Roz's urging, Lawless moves into the dead man's apartment in order to investigate. The residents are an appealing hodgepodge of eccentrics, lost souls, closeted gays, homophobes, cross-dressers and yuppies brought convincingly to life as Lawless and actress Cordelia Thorn, her irrepressible friend and sidekick, untangle a very complex puzzle. (Nov.)