After over forty years, Tessa’s past is catching up with her as a stranger is in town looking for the person she used to be, someone she hasn’t even told her wife Jill about.  Jane, a restaurateur cum amateur PI (who has been approached by her friend Nolan to become a partner in his PI business with an eye to taking it over as he retires), begins to look into who could be looking for Tessa and quickly learns just how much this woman has to hide — and to lose. 

Adding complications to the matter is the arrival of Tessa and Jill’s nephew Jonah in town who asks his aunts if he can spend his senior year in high school with them, allowing him to be nearer his girlfriend Emily. In Jonah’s absence Emily has begun spending time with Kenny whose grandmother is also harboring a secret and who was involved with Tessa forty years ago. Murder rarely has a happy ending, but in this case, so many lives are damaged and ruined that even justice will not take away the sting of the events that have transpired.

Lambda winning author Ellen Hart creates tragic situations where there can be no winners leaving her fully realized characters vulnerable and open to heartbreak and pain, even as justice and truth prevail.  Jane has been through many relationship difficulties after the death of her partner Christine, but is slowly coming to realize she doesn’t need a woman at her side to be a full person, and that she has many dear friends to help her through the rough spots. 

Cordelia continues to be a delight and true blue to Jane, often serving as her foil.  There are several convoluted mysteries going on at once, both in the past and present and though all ends are not neatly tied up, as they often aren’t in life, the conclusion is more than satisfying.  Though part of a long-running series, this book can stand alone and serve as a fine introduction to Jane and her friends.   

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry