Faint Praise - Softcover

Hart, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345404939 ISBN 13: 9780345404930

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1997

Synopsis

"INTELLIGENT AND ENGROSSING . . . A VERY COMPLEX PUZZLE."

--Publishers Weekly
Everyone knows Arno Heywood. He's been a Minneapolis TV personality for years. So when he jumps to his death from a downtown high-rise, it's a shocker--especially since he dies wearing women's clothes, a suicide in drag.
In chic Linden Lofts, where Arno lived, the other tenants are spooked, and smart investigator Jane Lawless soon finds out why. They, like Arno, have secrets to conceal, and the shadowy someone with a full set of keys who's scouting out their apartments may soon make that impossible. Can one of Linden Loft's upscale professionals really be an aspiring blackmailer? Before Jane and her pal Cordelia can make sure, a brutal murder ups the ante. . . .
"The plot resonates with fascinating details, a good bit of action, several keen twists, and a soupçon of romance for the protagonist."

--Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
"The characters are diverse and well rounded, the plot is intriguing, and the style lively and literate."

--The Armchair Detective

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

From its opening, in which local TV personality Arno Heywood dresses up as a woman before leaping to his death from the top of the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis, restaurateur Jane Lawless's sixth outing (following A Small Sacrifice) is intelligent and engrossing. Lawless, entering middle age and still mourning the not so recent death of her lover, Christine, is drawn into a dangerous situation when her old sorority sister Roz asks for help. Someone has been rearranging things in the compulsive Roz's apartment?a spectacular loft in a converted warehouse, which was owned by Heywood. Soon, the crimes on the premises escalate to murder. It looks like the culprit lives in the building?all of whose residents have ties to the charismatic Heywood. At Roz's urging, Lawless moves into the dead man's apartment in order to investigate. The residents are an appealing hodgepodge of eccentrics, lost souls, closeted gays, homophobes, cross-dressers and yuppies brought convincingly to life as Lawless and actress Cordelia Thorn, her irrepressible friend and sidekick, untangle a very complex puzzle.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Hart's fans will rejoice in the sixth Jane Lawless mystery. Full of wit and wicked deeds, fast pacing and memorable characters, it is the best caper yet for the lesbian restaurateur and amateur sleuth. This time, she solves the mystery of TV personality Arno Heywood, whose plunge to death and out of a compromising situation sets off a series of bizarre and unsettling events. During a seemingly unrelated investigation, Jane takes temporary occupancy in Linden Lofts, which Heywood owned, in an attempt to find a mysterious intruder who has shattered the security of the regular residents. While there, she faces a series of grisly assaults and brutal murders that connect Heywood's death to a deadly scheme of revenge. As always, sidekick Cordelia Thorn is a wickedly and irrepressibly witty treasure, who here rises to new heights of inspired lunacy and deduction. Followers of Lawless will delight in the possible love interest that arises for her as physician Julia Martinsen awakens emotions long dormant in Jane's heart and in the promise that this brightest of lesbian detective series burns ever brighter. Whitney Scott

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0345404939
• ISBN 13: 9780345404930
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 321