Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

In this fun, page-turner of a novel (Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author) that s perfect for fans of Mostly Dead Things and Goodbye, Vitamin, a morbidly anxious young woman stumbles into a job as a receptionist at a Catholic church and soon finds herself obsessed with her predecessor s mysterious death. Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace s old friend. She can t bear to ignore the kindly old woman who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence. With a kindhearted heroine we all need right now (Courtney Maum, New York Times bestselling author), Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling and delightfully weird reminder that we will one day turn to dust and that yes, this is depressing, but it s also what makes life beautiful (Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl).

Bleak Water by Danuta Reah

Reah delivers brilliant and chilly set pieces . . . she is a fine writer and her projection of sheer terror is enviable scary.-The Literary Review This is a crime novel with a strong element of psychological suspense . . . it combines the world of modern art with the world of the modern police force . . . the last fifty pages are nail biting.-Irish Examiner Reah is skilled at splicing domestic life with the menace of fear and at creating characters who are vulnerable, intelligent and humane.-Manchester Evening News (England) Beyond the new city center developments, the old Sheffield canal is overgrown, run down, and deserted. Signs of regeneration creep along its towpaths, including a small innovative gallery housed in one of the warehouses. But between the renovations it’s a dark and lonely place-the perfect site for an exhibition reworking Brueghel’s The Triumph of Death. For Eliza Eliot, the curator, the chance to show well-known artist Daniel Flynn’s work at the gallery is a coup. But when a young woman’s body is found in the canal, Flynn’s nightmare images begin to spill out into the real world. Still affected by the murder of her friend’s daughter four years earlier, Eliza is drawn deep into the violence that seems to surround the gallery. Is this the work of a psychopath, or is there a link between present horrors and the tragedy of four years ago?

Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

Debuting on the New York stage, Zara is unprepared for Eli, the girl who makes the world glow; for Leopold, the director who wants perfection; or for death in the theater.Zara Evans has come to the Aurelia Theater, home to the visionary director Leopold Henneman, to play her dream role in Echo and Ariston, the Greek tragedy that taught her everything she knows about love. When the director asks Zara to promise that she will have no outside commitments, no distractions, it s easy to say yes. But it s hard not to be distracted when there s a death at the theater and then another especially when Zara doesn t know if they re accidents, or murder, or a curse that always comes in threes. It s hard not to be distracted when assistant lighting director Eli Vasquez, a girl made of tattoos and abrupt laughs and every form of light, looks at Zara. It s hard not to fall in love. In heart-achingly beautiful prose, Amy Rose Capetta has spun a mystery and a love story into an impossible, inevitable whole and cast lantern light on two young women, finding each other on a stage set for tragedy.

Hallowed Murder by Ellen Hart

The landmark 1989 debut mystery by Ellen Hart introducing lesbian amateur sleuth Jane Lawless as she investigates a sorority sister’s suspicious drowning.

Stage Fright by Ellen Hart

A classic, Lambda Award-nominated mystery featuring lesbian sleuth Jane Lawless investigating a theatrical murder.

Faint Praise by Ellen Hart

An atmospheric Minneapolis mystery following lesbian sleuth Jane Lawless as she uncovers blackmail and murder inside an upscale loft community.

Small Sacrifice by Ellen Hart

A compelling entry in Ellen Hart’s acclaimed mystery series following lesbian detective Jane Lawless as she dissects a lethal college theater reunion