Hallowed Murder (1989)

The very first book in the Jane Lawless series, this book is set in the 80s (and written then also, I think) and might seem odd to those of us used to the modern tech - internet and cell phones, just to mention a few things that are not in the book... The book does a good job of introducing us to what I am hoping will be main characters that flow through the series. The characters are human and complex; the murderer was not obvious. Many red herrings were dragged across the path on the way to the solution.

The Audio version definitely has some volume control issues - the sound goes up and down. The reader did a decent job, though, and it was not distracting. The whisper sync worked as it was supposed to. ( )

Stilted dialogue, poorly plotted, swift unrealistic ending. There's a kernel of a great buddy relationship between Jane Lawless and Cordelia Thorn but it's undeveloped in this debut. The series has continued and won awards, so she must get better. I would rate it only 1 star normally, but since that means "I hated it" in this system, I think that's too harsh. ( )

I had to read this for a class. The first lesbian novel I've ever read. I enjoyed it. A young female coed is found dead and everyone thinks it's a suicide because she recently came out as a lesbian. Jane Lawless is also a lesbian but she doesn't believe the young girl killed herself, so she decides to find the murderer.