Fever in the Dark

November 7, 2016
Series fans will best appreciate Hart’s 24th Jane Lawless mystery set in Minneapolis (after 2015’s The Grave Soul). Fiona, an old friend of Jane’s, and her wife, Annie, start receiving unwanted attention when their marriage-proposal video goes viral a year after their wedding. The strain of being media darlings is further complicated by Fi getting creepy mash notes from an anonymous stranger. The one benefit to the exposure is that Annie’s estranged family attempt to reconnect with her. However, Annie has a secret from her past that involves her psychiatrist brother-in-law, Noah Foster, which she wants to keep secret. When Noah is murdered—he’s poisoned and shot—Annie is a prime suspect. But so is Noah’s mistress, who was also one of his patients. Jane does some sleuthing, but she’s more focused on running her restaurant business than solving the central crime. A subplot involving Jane’s ex, Julia, is a welcome distraction in an entry that lacks tension, despite a bomb scare and suspicious behavior by various supporting characters. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary.

November 15, 2016
A video gone viral forces a couple to confront one member's past and decide whether it means they can still have a future together.Cordelia Thorn is no stranger to drama. Her friend Jane Lawless is a part-time private eye who's relied on Cordelia's help in a number of cases. Though Cordelia's job is to run Minneapolis' Thorn Lester Playhouse, she's drawn to mysteries like the one involving her stage manager, Fiona McGuy. Fi's just returned from a trip celebrating her one-year anniversary with her wife, Annie Johnson, and the two are shocked when they're greeted by strangers at their house. Fi's sweet but very personal proposal to Annie has somehow gone viral, and folks are lined up to praise or protest the happy couple. Though Fi doesn't understand the big deal, Annie is horrified. So Fi asks Cordelia and Jane to try to figure out which emails they've received are from admiring new friends and which from frightening foes. When Annie's estranged family appears out of nowhere, Fi starts to get a better idea why Annie's been so afraid of the video's internet reach. Apparently Annie's been all but hiding from her family, and their arrival may be the prelude to a day of reckoning with one family member with whom Annie had a bad run-in in the past. All the while Jane is investigating Annie's and Fi's lives, her own life seems to be about to change, as an old flame returns, determined to rewrite her story with Jane. Hart (The Grave Soul, 2015, etc.) connects the events of the main story to a brief opening chapter presenting a savage murder, leading readers up to the attack and beyond while revealing the potential murderer's motive.

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December 1, 2016

A YouTube video of Fiona and Annie's marriage proposal is about to go viral, but Annie is terrified that her hidden past will surface. When Fiona starts receiving threatening letters, she hires Jane Lawless to investigate. Soon someone is murdered and Annie disappears. Well-developed characters retain their allure in Hart's 24th series outing (after The Grave Soul).

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2016
Hart's (The Old and Deep, 2014) twenty-first Jane Lawless novel finds lesbian PI and restaurateur Lawless helping her friends, Fiona and Annie, after their marriage proposal was somehow recorded and posted, going viral on YouTube and triggering both support and hatred. Since their wedding closely follows the Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage, the resultant media storm creates havoc and friction in their lives as invasion of privacy becomes the norm, and they become divided about the news coverage. A dark element of dread and foreboding hangs over the story, foreshadowing a murder as Annie's secret past begins to emerge, and both she and her wife become suspects. Now Lawless must prove their innocence. Though some Lawless fans may miss the wise-ass, over-the-top humor of irresistible sidekick Cordelia Thorne, there are hints that she will return. On the upside, Hart was inspired this time to write a tightly plotted, exceptionally engrossing mystery, one of the strongest in a popular series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)