Roberta’s Fire by Kelly Sinclair

The stunning conclusion to the Tantona Trilogy, that started with Accidental Rebels, and continued in If the Wind Were a Woman. In the summer of 1951, a hate crime happened in a small Texas town. It was covered up at the time, but the deadly event changed the lives of everyone involved. One of those, E.L. 'Marty' Signoret, went on to write a famous young adult novel similar in impact to 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Now in her eighties, Marty returns to Tantona, Texas, accompanied by her young would-be biographer. Marty is there for the funeral of Roberta-the closeted lesbian who left a path of wounded lovers in her lifetime. Roberta Steinhall, beautiful and ruthless, was the queen of the closet for over sixty years, yet she must have been a teenager once. Must have been ready to risk everything for the love of a girl. That girl was Marty. A house burned down; a life was lost. Lies were told and secrets buried. Now Marty is ready to tell the truth to a circle of lesbians and gay men who knew Roberta in her prime. In flashbacks that comprise most of the novel, we relive that summer of '51, where a Latino man courts Marty's married sister, a Jewish girl tries to keep her Christian boyfriend under wraps-and teen lovers Marty and Roberta are faced with a life-or-death decision.