It Takes One to Know One

Kate Allen
New Victoria Publishers
093467874X,

The third installment in Kate Allen's Allison Kaine mystery series, It Takes One to Know One, continues to be my favorite. Allison, a Denver police officer and her best friend, Michelle, travel south to spend a peaceful, long, working retreat weekend on womyn's land near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The weekend takes several unexpected turns as Stacy, Allison's girlfriend and a professional dominatrix, shows up to make peace after a recent argument. Uninformed of the commune's strict rules, Stacy and her best friend, Liz set up "Fun Camp" outside the Land. Well provisioned with caffeine and alcohol, they become the local entertainment and outlet for the less pure retreat members. Predictably, arguments concerning feminism and the leather community flare up in the desert heat.

Despite their differences, or perhaps because of them, Stacy and Allison still manage to find time for a heated power exchange. Allison and company do a wonderful job of humanizing that feminist taboo- s/m. In depicting intelligent, caring women with ordinary jobs (except for Stacy . . .), bills, and pets, Allen creates cognitive dissidence for people who demonize the leather community.

Allison and Stacy aren't the only ones indulging their erotic affections. Away from the strain of domestic life with her girlfriend and their colicky baby, Michelle is expressing more than a professional interest in Persimmon, a fellow glass artist, and one of the commune sponsors.

Soon, Sarah Embraces-All-Things, the commune spiritual leader, a bully, and possibly a fraud, is discovered dead in the sweat lodge. Allison, suffering from a recently diagnosed chronic illness, struggles to sort out her professional responsibility as a police officer and her role as a supportive lesbian. Several members of the retreat appear happy to call Sarah's death an accident. Are they protecting a murderer?

Allen succeeds in poking fun at all the complexities and contradictions of the lesbian, gay, and feminist community without being malicious -- a great temptation, particularly over some of the issues -- and conveys intelligent ambivalence over controversial issues. As the characters struggle with their interactions, political views, and the question of Sarah's death, Allen points out how very funny lesbians can be while she consistently displays compassion for the women that make up our community. All of Allen's novels are intelligent, humorous, and worth buying but Takes One to Know One is still my favorite to date.

-MJ

BN: All of Kate Allen's titles are still available via www.bellabooks.com

Murder for Beltene: A Beltene Family Mystery

Sandra L. Brewer
Write Way Publishing
1885173679

On her way to the store for her nightly soft ice cream cone fix, Rhiannon Beltene finds a dead body on the path that cuts through her family's woods. Thus opens Murder for Beltene: A Beltene Family Mystery, a new novel by Sandra L. Brewer. The victim's anonymity alone is strange in the quiet town of Sevyrn, located in Brennan County in Michigan's Upper peninsula. However, the circumstances of his death -- Drained of blood with puncture wounds in the neck, the body appears to have been killed by a vampire. -- make it clear that Rhi, a successful writer of vampire fiction, has acquired a rather dangerous admirer.

As the start to bodies appear regularly Rhi finds herself forced to deal with Brennan County's new Sheriff who has serious reservations about one of Rhi's cousins. Trysan sleeps in a coffin and enjoys vampire fantasies. Despite a pressing deadline for her next novel, Rhi is forced to set her writing aside to assist the investigation and comes to accept her responsibilities as "The Beltene" or head of Clan Beltene, a family of Welsh descent that has been in Brennan County since the 1780s.

The mystery itself takes a back seat to the mystery of the Beltene family and as the reader meets an interesting assortment of clan members -- from mercenaries to lawyers to Catholic priests to long practicing (definately not "neo") Druids -- it quickly becomes clear that nothing is quite as it appears. Brewer's characters are funny, intelligent, and more than a little odd . . .. Murder for Beltene is Brewer's first novel featuring the Beltene clan, and with any luck, it won't be the last such book that we get from Brewer.

-MJ Lowe

Roses & Thorns : Beauty and the Beast Retold

Chris Anne Wolfe
Windstorm Creative
1886383642

Roses & Thorns is a touching retelling of the "Beauty & the Beast" fable with a lavender twist. We all know the old story. A young, handsome noble whose cruelty and selfishness had caused pain to many was cursed. He was condemned to appear to be the beast he had behaved until he could learn responsibility, compassion, how to love and finally be freely loved by a young woman.

The author, Chris Anne Wolfe, did not merely place a lover of women in the role of the callous beast. Instead she took an opportunity to explore how a hateful and homophobic society condemns those seen as different. Thus forcing the condemned to shamefully hide who they are in an effort to win acceptance, approval and possibly even love.

Years ago, Drew, a young noble woman was condemned as "the most perverted, grotesque of creatures known to our earth" because she loved another woman. Sadly the object of Drew's affections had more interest in gaining access to her father's wealth and having Drew cursed was part of the plan. ...Drew was cursed to live in a parallel, magical time and place until she could find another woman who would love her in return.

Drew internalizes this hate to the point of not expecting or believing that she could or should be loved freely by another woman. Drew's shame prompts her to cloak her female identity from any accidental visitors to her realm. Over centuries no young woman was willing to look beyond Drew's mask to know her as a person, let alone love her freely. It seemed to Drew that her damnation was deserved.

Bound by the curse, Drew once again barters for the hand of a traveling merchant's daughter. But Angelique, this latest young woman to arrive in Drew's domain, is different. She's not afraid of Drew. This charming, romantic fantasy is a delightful way to pass an afternoon. Quite enjoyable, it is unnecessary to read the fable as more than a love story. However, elements of the story returned to me after reading it. This is not just a "simple" retelling of the beauty and the beast story.

The late Ms. Wolfe succeeded in creating a new fable for the lesbian (and gay) community from this old tale. She reminds us that there are many "beasts" in this world who would like to condemn us for being different. People who use fear of that difference to achieve some personal gains. She points to our love as our ironic redemption in the face of such hate and fear. This multifaceted story is what fables are supposed to be. Read it and be charmed.

-MJ Lowe

BN: This title was originally published under the title, Bitter Thorns by Pride Productions, in 1994. The cover was based on Wolfe's illustrations and not as evocative as the new cover, however, if you can locate this edition, do so. There were editorial errors in the new edition.

Day Stripper

Jenny Scholten
New Victoria Publisher
1892281104

Day Stripper is a readable, entertaining first novel for Scholten. The mystery follows Aubrey Lyle, a San Francisco stripper who finds herself tracking down a murderer after another of Naughtyland's dancers is found strangled in a leather bra borrowed from Aubrey.

Aubrey is helped along by an assortment of strange yet endearing roommates and friends who add texture and redeeming humor to the story. Though at times defensive of her work Aubrey is painfully realistic and practical about it. In fact Aubrey's roommates have begun to worry that her job as a "testosterone mop" has robbed her of her sex drive.

Scholten (who worked her way through graduate school as a stripper) depicts the illusionary world of "Live Nude Girls" as often grim and sometimes bizarrely amusing but never erotic particularly for the women working in it. Although at times uneven Day Stripper is a promising first novel for Scholten. It will be interesting to see what future stories she pens.

-MJ Lowe

Uniform Sex: Erotic Stories from Women in Service

Linnea A. Due
Alyson Books
1555835457

The most recent anthology of lesbian erotic stories from Alyson, Uniform Sex: Erotic Stories from Women in Service is one of the best of the publisher's several titles in this genre. The uniforms featured in the 19 stories run from the expected police officers and soldiers to a rather amusing fixation on the polyester worn by workers at that artery hardening fast food purveyor known as the Golden Arches.

The stories also cover a broad range of the roles uniforms play in our lives and fantasies. There are humorous entries like "Butch Talk" by Nicole Foster (who has edited similar volumes for Alyson). It contains several tongue-in-cheek observations of "lesbian culture." The touching and insightful "Naked" by J. M. Redmann (author of the Lambda winning Mickey Knight mysteries) offers observations on the identity involved in putting on -- and taking off -- a uniform. Kate Allen (Denver lesbian writer and author of the wonderful Alison Kaine stories -- which you should read if you haven't already) takes the reader into a captivating power exchange at "Uniform Night at the Butches' Club."

Uniform Sex is sure to provide a perfect fit for readers.

-MJ Lowe