Food, Desire, and Murder in Minneapolis

I liked The Mirror and the Mask by Ellen Hart. Hart has constructed a solid mystery around fascinating recurring characters (this is her seventeenth Jane Lawless mystery) and variously miserable victims and/or perpetrators of planned, aborted, and executed murders. Set in a landscape of the cold, hard early winter of Minneapolis, Hart warms up her mystery with multiple scams, bitching wives, and lying husbands. She turns the heat up when Jane, an openly and actively gay restaurateur and amateur sleuth, finds herself attracted to a younger, gorgeous, (and maybe even dangerous) woman on the hunt for her missing father. Can Jane save the day and get the girl? Hart turns the tired formula on its head and makes it work, all over again. Add in a subplot about a child’s rightful home, and we have a mystery all about what makes a parent, what makes a friend, and what happens when blood fails but love steps in.

Jane’s friend Cordelia has a larger-than-life personality matched by her ego (and heart) but it is thanks to her ferreting that Jane gets her first lucky break in tracking down Annie’s father. From that point on, the book chugs along picking up steam and suspects. No one is as they seem, hidden desires abound, and neurotic complexes multiply. Jane keeps her feet on the ground, but allows her heart to sing, a little. She keeps up her real job of managing her restaurants while pursuing her investigation, offering a shoulder and good food when necessary, and taking up an unexpected offer. Is Jane being used or is Jane being useful? I won’t give away the story but I can promise the ending is satisfying, surprising, and warm (not hot).

This was my first Jane Lawless mystery but it won’t be my last. Jane’s a keeper. I intend to go all the way back to the first mystery starring this smart, sexy, and gay sleuth, and work my way through her cases, one by one. I just can’t promise that I will ever cozy up to the very large (in every way) Cordelia or get used to the appalling names of Jane’s restaurants, Xanadu Club and The Lyme House. Maybe in the next book Jane will re-name her watering holes and settle down for good.