Katie Gilmartin

I read this book as an electronic advance reading copy provided by Edelweiss, and I have submitted my comments to the publisher via that web site.

As a traditional hard boiled mystery novel, this book is passable. The mystery is barely plausible, with lots of inconsistencies. To be fair, it is written in the style of lesbian pulp fiction novels, which were hardly realistic. But readers should not dismiss this book so easily.

As a document of how dangerous it was to live authentically as a gay or lesbian individual in 1950s America--even in San Francisco--this book is fantastic. The author's accounts of the abuse and persecution that LGBT people experienced from strangers, as well as from their families, the police, and the government, are heartbreaking and deeply affecting. By fictionalizing these important stories, the author renders them more likely to be read and appreciated than if they were tucked away in a scholarly nonfiction treatise that would have received a limited audience.

As a cultural document, rather than a work of fiction, this book is excellent and highly recommended. Recommended for all libraries.… (meer)