SWEET POISON (Ellen Hart)

Ellen Hart's Jane Lawless series falls under the category of gay literature, and it is done pretty well.  Jane is a Minneapolis restaurant owner in a long distance relationship with a college professor, Kenzie Mulroy.  Jane's best friend Cordelia is also gay, with a partner who lives in an adjacent building within yelling distance.  Other gay characters include Jane's former partner, Julia, Jane's father's campaign IT guy, and a minister who has been the victim of a serious gay-bashing crime.

Some of the Christie Capers were decidedly not pleased with this choice and I believe that for some of them the general plot (more gritty than cozy) along with the gay theme and large number of gay characters were simply not appealing.  For others, including myself, the novel was fine, but I did find myself, like Joan Cusack fleeing that bar in her wedding gown in the movie "In & Out," thinking, "Is everybody gay?"

Jane's father, Raymond Lawless, is running for governor of Minnesota when Corey Hodge is paroled from prison just before the election.  Corey has always proclaimed himself innocent, but took a plea bargain on the advice of Ray Lawless, his lawyer, and served 10 years in prison.  Now he is accused of another, similar crime when one of Ray Lawless' campaign volunteers is found dead after being seen with him.  In addition to the press frenzy over Hodge's connection with Ray Lawless, campaign headquarters is plagued by computer problems and Ray has been suffering some perplexing health problems that he is trying to conceal until the election is over.  Jane is not as involved in "investigating" as I would have expected, but she is supportive of her father and worries about the impact of all of these factors on his bid for governor.

I read an interview with Ellen Hart in which she talks about her books being somewhat marginalized by the mainstream literary world because of their gay theme, so I went into this mystery with the expectation that the main character being gay would be a primary focus, as it was.  I admire the author for providing a good solid series in a genre that is obviously in demand and often difficult to find. I think that perhaps readers like me, who are not gay, might have a hard time identifying with Ms. Hart's novels because the number of gay characters seems out of proportion with the general population.  For someone gay who is looking for a mystery with characters with whom they can identify, though, this would be a good choice.  If Ms. Hart changed her series to appeal more to the mainstream, she might sell more books, but I think she would leave a void in an area of literature that she fills quite well as is.