Lost Daughters: A Micky Knight Mystery [Hardcover]

J. M. Redmann (Author), J.M. Redmann (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mickey Knight Mystery | Publication Date: July 1, 1999

Lambda Award-winning author J. M. Redmann continues her "fine, hard-boiled tale-telling" (Washington Post Book World) in a new novel featuring Micky Knight, "one of the most . . . complex female detectives in print today" (San Francisco Chronicle). Micky Knight, a bayou-bred and out-of-the-closet New Orleans private investigator, takes on the cases of a widowed mother looking for her daughter and a tough gay boy hunting for his biological mother. These cases stir in Micky a desire to search for her own mother who abandoned her when she was a young girl. When a young woman patient is murdered at her lover's clinic it seems to be just a bizarre coincidence. But then another woman, also a patient, is murdered, suggesting the frightening possibility that these events are more than just random chances. Even more alarming, the killer seems to know too much about the victims. As the killer circles ever closer to Micky --and the lost daughter she is trying to reconnect to her mother --the coincidences become a grisly reality: the one characteristic all the victims share is that they dare to love other women. Redmann once again keeps you at the edge of your seat. "A gutsy, fast-thinking PI in the Raymond Chandler tradition, Micky Knight is a detective mystery fans both gay and straight will want to see again and again." --Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its plethora of subplots and varied characters, this fourth installment in Redmann's Micky Knight series is an ambitious work. When Micky's well-to-do physician girlfriend, Cordelia James, must visit the coroner's office to identify a former lesbian patient who has been brutally murdered, the death appears to be an isolated incident. But matters take a twist after another lesbian patient turns up dead. Meanwhile, Micky is busy working on two missing-persons cases: in one, a mother looks for her estranged daughter; in the other, an HIV+ drag queen searches for his biological mother. Micky's complicated investigations unearth numerous closeted skeletons. The death of two uncles brings a few revelations about Micky's enigmatic past as well, provoking her to search for her own mother, who abandoned her nearly 20 years ago. Micky's diggings inadvertently lead her straight into the boudoir of powerful, closeted society matron Suzanna Forquet and her old-moneyed husband, Henri. The novel is spiced with sarcastic humor, and Redmann carefully ties together her various plot lines, but even the neatness and the wit don't quite relieve the book of the burden of its characters' self-conscious struggle with Life Issues. Trodding a familiar path of family dysfunction, closet politics and unrequited love gone awry, this mystery ultimately winds up as an unappealing mix of lesbian group therapy and gumshoe kitsch. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

New Orleans private investigator Michele "Micky" Knight searches for a black woman's rejected lesbian daughter, a dying drag queen's natural mother, and her own long-ago "runaway" mother. Beneath each investigation lies a complex web of character, history, and circumstance, a web made stickier by a serial murderer who stalks lesbians. Micky's lover, doctor Cordelia, and a small host of medical, gay, and/or police-type friends and relatives also become involved with other remarkable denizens of the city. An admirable, tough PI with an eye for detail and the courage, finally, to confront her own fear. Recommended.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393040283
• ISBN-13: 978-0393040289
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,126,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All of the Micky Knight books are fabulous, March 13, 2003

By 

paedagogue "paedagogue" (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Lost Daughters: A Micky Knight Mystery (Hardcover)

and it's a crying shame that they are not kept affordably in print--for one thing, it deprives Redmann of some very well earned revenue. In many ways, this 4th installment of Micky's adventures reads like the natural conclusion to the cycle of investigations opened by the first volume in the series, when we were introduced to a tough and beautiful lesbian babe-magnet with a smart mouth and endless compassion for those in trouble. She's physical (and even promiscuous--but the series is about how she gets tamed), she's achingly vulnerable, she's noble, she's got demons. Only in Lost Daughters do we meet her settled into a proper relationship, so the angst quotient is considerably lower than in the other books. Still, the conclusion to her search for her mother is unbelievably touching, and handled with just the right measure of reserve. Much as I'd love to see more of her, I wonder whether Redmann (whose website, ominously, appears to have vanished from cyberspace) is finished with her adventures. If she is, I just pray that she has another heroine in reserve for us to cheer on. Like the Meg Darcy books, with their lovingly depicted St. Louis locales, the Mickey Knight stories set us in a believable New Orleans, with its social strata, its weather, its flavors and smells.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, August 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost Daughters: A Micky Knight Mystery (Hardcover)

If you love lesbian detective novels, this is a must read!!!

As the fourth in the series, Lost Daughters has to be Redmann's best. The character of Micky Knight has grown throughout the series and in the best ways. If you haven't picked up Redmann's earlier works, do so, however, you can easily read Lost Daughters on it's own. Redmann writes so well, great descriptions, great characters, conversations and more. The story is interesting, tying in so much of Micky's life and answering long asked questions.

JM Redmann, you have a winner here and I hope to read more soon!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally this one is in paperback!, April 24, 2006

By 

constantread "constantread" (NM) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lost Daughters: A Micky Knight Mystery (Micky Knight Mystery Series) (Paperback)

Finally this book is back in print. I read a friend's hardback copy, thinking the paperback would be out in a year or two. That was over five years ago. I was introduced to Micky Knight when
I picked up a mass market copy of THE INTERSECTION OF LAW AND DESIRE about ten years ago and looked for more books. Since the first two books were out of print, I waited for the next book in the series.
This excellent book about mothers and daughters kept me reading until my eyes wouldn't stay open. I finished it the following morning. Micky Knight has been described as "hard-boiled" by some reviewers, but I think that tough-veneered is a better description. In fact, she is extremely vulnerable. what I like most about Micky is that she doesn't just tackle ordinary crimes and shoot people and kick butt. Yes she does shoot a time or two, but it is usually not an easy thing for her and is almost always in self-defense and when she kicks butt, she doesn't bother to take names. Without giving away the plot, let me say this book is about daughters looking for their mothers -- including Micky.
Redmann writes complex plots and well-developed characters. There is a cast of friends beginning with Micky's lover Cordelia, and her ex-lover assistant DA Danielle Clayton (and her life-partner, Elly) Police Sargent Joanne Ranson and her life-partner Alex, Micky's cousin drag-queen Torbin and his life-mate Andy. We were introduced to them in the first of four mysteries and we learn a little more about them as the series progresses. There are some less likeable recurring characters, especially Micky's Aunt Greta and her despised cousin Bayard.
Micky Knight is a complex, usually likeable woman who cares deeply about others. If you haven't already read this book,do so. And read the three other Micky Knight books.