The Iron Girl: A Jane Lawless Mystery [Hardcover]

Ellen Hart (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jane Lawless | Publication Date: July 14, 2005

Ray Lawless, prominent defense attorney and father of Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless, tries his biggest case yet defending an accused serial murderer and arsonist whom the media has dubbed "The Fireman." Ray's client is eventually convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, though he proclaims his innocence to the end, and a few days later, he kills himself in his cell.

But someone in The Fireman's life can't let go, and, blaming Ray for the man's death, plots a meticulous revenge. Both Jane and her brother Peter, who is already under terrible stress because of a troubled marriage, feel the heat of the avenger's plan.

But Jane is intimately familiar with danger, and she's never been one to shrink from a fight. With the help of her best friend Cordelia, Jane sets out to discover why this person is so determined to undo her family. When she begins to dig into The Fireman's life, the puzzle unravels, leading Jane to a final confrontation with someone bent on making the Lawlesses pay, perhaps with their lives.

Immaculate Midnight is a taught, dynamic installment in an award-winning series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A promising new relationship gives Jane Lawless, Minneapolis restaurateur and occasional sleuth, the courage to finally deal with the boxed-up possessions of her long-dead lover, Christine, in this shrewd and consistently entertaining whodunit. Real estate agent Christine's last clients belonged to the wealthy, eccentric Simoneau family, three of whose members were murdered just before her death. After interviewing the convicted killer, Jane is convinced of his innocence and even more curious about Christine's involvement. She finds more than a few skeletons in the closet when she seeks answers from the pair of bickering survivors still inhabiting the decaying Simoneau family mansion. Meanwhile, Jane offers her trust and support to a young photography student who's a doppelganger for Christine. The photographer's timely appearance is all too coincidental for the suspicious Cordelia, Jane's best friend, who adds her sharp tongue, audacious fashion sense and investigative assistance. Cordelia's sometimes overzealous protectiveness comes in handy when the long-hidden true killer surfaces. Hart (An Intimate Ghost, etc.) delivers vivid, off-the-beaten-track characters and enough clues and layers of intrigue to keep the pages turning.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Are we boats in a current ceaselessly bearing us into the past? The latest of Hart's sleuthers featuring lesbian restaurateur Jane Lawless seems to re-pose Nick Carraway's big question. Jane has long been mourning lover Christine's 1987 death, but a promising relationship with Kenzie means it's time to move on. While cleaning out the virtually untouched boxes of Christine's things, Jane discovers a gun in the dead realtor's briefcase, recalling a time when Chris had been selling a house for the wealthy, eccentric Simoneaus, three of whom were murdered the night before her death. Further exploration unearths ghosts from the past and revives Jane's yearning for Christine, which intensifies when she meets young photographer Greta, a dead ringer for the dead lover. Hiring the look-alike to document the rehabbing of a new theme restaurant Jane is developing seems natural. Longtime friend and sidekick Cordelia objects, but does Jane listen? Of course not, much to the gladdening of established and new Lawless fans everywhere. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (July 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312317492
• ISBN-13: 978-0312317492
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,016,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ellen Hart is the author of twenty-five crime novels in two different series.?? She is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction, a three-time winner of the Golden Crown Literary Award, a recipient of the Alice B Medal, and was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans in 2005. ?? Entertainment Weekly??named her one of the "101 Movers and Shakers in the Gay Entertainment Industry." For the past twelve years, Ellen has taught "An Introduction to Writing the Modern Mystery" through the The Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation. Ellen's newest Sophie Greenway mystery is No Reservations Required, (Ballantine, June 2005). The Mirror and the Mask, the seventeenth Jane Lawless mystery, was released by St. Martin's/Minotaur in November 2009.?? Ellen lives in Minneapolis with her partner of 32 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Ellen Hart's Best Yet!, August 26, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iron Girl: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Hardcover)

There is no doubt that we are blessed with many talented mystery writers. There are, however, only a handful of books each year that are exceptional. Ellen Hart's The Iron Girl is one of those. I've read many of Hart's novels and while they are all well written, compelling and interesting stories, The Iron Girl is spectacular.

The death of Jane Lawless' life partner Christine Kane many years ago did not put closure on their relationship. With a new relationship beginning, Jane realizes she must move on. She begins the sad and disturbing job of going through the boxes of Christine's belongings that have waited for so many years. During the examination of Christine's possessions, Jane finds a gun. What is unusual is that Christine abhorred guns and that it actually belonged to an eccentric and wealthy Minneapolis family. This family had members of the household brutally murdered the night before Christine died of cancer.

Jane is unable to put aside the gun and other discoveries she's made. She is determined to learn what happened at the Simoneau household and how Christine fit in with the murders. As she searches, a Christine look-alike moves to town, clouding Jane's ability to think clearly.

Jane's past and present collide in a deadly and sensational manner. Only Jane can find out what truly happened. But it just might put her and others in a great deal of danger.

This latest episode in the Jane Lawless series is as emotional and dramatic as I've ever seen Ellen Hart's writing. Her plot is both fascinating and heart wrenching, the characters full-bodied and complex with all the real-life human frailties and vulnerabilities. The intensity of emotions is so real you'll find yourself drawn in and living the story.

Armchair Interviews says: The Iron Girl is one of the best and most intriguing mysteries of 2005. It is definitely a must read!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The past comes back to haunt Jane Lawless, October 7, 2005

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iron Girl: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Hardcover)

After years of mourning, Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is finally starting to come out of the funk she fell into following the tragic death of her partner Christine Kane. Having found new hope from her long distance relationship with Kenzie Mullroy, she tackles the sad task of going through the boxes of Christine's personal items that she had stored away. Much to her dismay, she discovers a gun amidst Christine's keepsakes which had been deemed a key piece of evidence in a notorious murder trial some eighteen years before. Desperate to know what Christine's involvement in that case was, she undertakes a private investigation into a sensational triple murder which has generated controversy locally and nationally for nearly two decades.

Although this was my first Jane Lawless book (The Iron Girl is the thirteenth book in the series which began in 1989 with Hallowed Murder), I felt as if I had been reading about her for ages. Falling under Hart's spell within a few pages, I took an immediate interest in Jane and her extended family, and in the small corner of Minnesota where The Iron Girl is set. Hart lays her cards on the table with great patience, stringing her readers along with an intoxicating mixture of danger, humor and romance, keeping them riveted until she can deliver her jolting and satisfying conclusion. They say you'll always remember your first, and that's definitely true for me in the case of Jane Lawless, Ellen Hart and The Iron Girl.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner, August 21, 2005

By 

BeachBum (Clearwater, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iron Girl: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Hardcover)

Ellen Hart has another winner in her Jane Lawless series. "The Iron Girl" finally provides us with the back story of Jane and her partner Christine who died of cancer. Woven throughout this backstory is Jane dealing with her feelings for Christine (still very much in evidence years after her passing)while trying to move on with her life.

There isn't a rock 'em, sock 'em finish like Cordelia driving her Hummer through a dining room to create a diversion, but this is still a very satisfying read for Lawless fans.