Bayou City Secrets

Deborah Powell

‘I have a three inch tall bulldyke that lives on my shoulder. She wears a little red tuxedo with sensible shoes, and has a tail and horns. She also carries a pool cue that she jabs me with when she wants me to respond to something I would really rather ignore. She whispers things for me to say and I open my mouth and out they come… she jabbed, my mouth opened…

‘ ‘And don’t you ever lay another finger on me as long as you live or I’ll kick you in the (testicles) so hard you’ll be wearing them for little pink earrings.’

— Powell, Deborah. Bayou City Secrets. Tallahassee: Naiad Press, 1991.

One of the funniest, most entertaining, and most unusual mysteries of the year. Set in the cold winter of 1936, blunt-talking investigate reporter Hollis Carpenter has quit her steady job at the Houston Times rather than accept a society-page assignment. Newspaper owner Andrew Delacroix personally intervenes to dissuade her, as does his beautiful wife Lily Delacroix…but Lily has never before met a woman quite like Hollis Carpenter.

Then things start to really go wrong, and strange events beset Hollis. Her apartment is broken into, a friend is murdered and almost despite herself she finds herself hurled into the millieu of the professional investigator…and liking what she finds.

A refreshing, comical, and thoroughly engaging feminish mystery novel to be followed by the exciting sequel, Houston Town.

—

From Publishers Weekly

Powell makes a promising debut with a fast-moving, entertaining mystery set in the 1930s and served up in the hardboiled style. When Hollis Carpenter, veteran crime reporter for the Houston Times , is pulled from her beat to cover a no-news society item, she resigns in disgust. Andrew Delacroix, the paper’s owner, intervenes, inviting Hollis to dinner and asking her to reconsider the new assignment while showing a genuine interest in her current story concerning guns that have vanished from the police station’s evidence room. Hollis returns from her evening with Delacroix and his beautiful wife, Lily, only to find that her apartment has been burgled. She decides to seek help from Joe Mahan, a friend and cop, but at his house she finds his corpse; Joe has been murdered. Then Hollis herself receives a death threat and is nearly gunned down in public with Lily, whom she meets for an evening out. Clearly, whatever the now unemployed reporter stirred up is dangerous and edging ever closer. Although Hollis is more a smart aleck than a wit and Lily remains undeveloped, Powell effectively makes their lesbian relationship integral to the mystery.

From Library Journal

In another Naiad mystery, first novelist Powell enters 1936 Houston crime reporter Hollis Carpenter in the ranks of lesbian investigators, but only with partial success. Although she evokes the rough mood of the Thirties well enough, the mannerisms she gives Hollis are excessive. Butch as hell around people, she spouts brash language and brutal simile while searching for a cop killer but allows her pet dog to push her around; she reacts quickly to events, but goes weak-kneed at the sight of glamorous Lily Delacroix, her sudden love interest. Despite a certain gritty charm, this is not recommended.

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Details

ISBN	704343266
Genre	Mystery
Publication Date	31-Dec-92
Publisher	Women’s Press
Format	Trade Paperback
No. of Pages	224
Series	Hollis Carpenter Mystery
# in Series	1
Language	English
Rating	NotRated
BookID	864

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Bayou City Secrets by Deborah Powell