Night Vision: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Jane Lawless Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Ellen Hart (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jane Lawless Mysteries | Publication Date: December 12, 2006

Joanna Kasimir, an old friend of Jane Lawless, left Minneapolis years ago to make it big in Hollywood and, unlike so many others, she succeeded. Unfortunately, her stardom came at a price. Early in her career, Joanna was involved with a man who quickly went from being an idle interest to a dangerous stalker. Nearly a decade has passed since she sent him to prison, but just as she is about to leave for her hometown to star in her friend Cordelia Thorn's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, she receives one of his ominous calling cards.

Joanna refuses to let him control her life--she can't. Not again. Tired after ten years of fear, ten years of hiding, she calls on Jane, restaurateur and amateur sleuth, and former homicide detective A. J. Nolan, but they may not be able to protect her from a man who refuses to be anyone's one-night stand.

 

And when they find out that Joanna may not be the only one on the run, their investigation quickly spins Jane into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Night Vision promises to be one of Ellen Hart's best mysteries yet.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Hart's entertaining, unpredictable 14th mystery to feature lesbian restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless (after 2005's The Iron Girl), movie star Joanna Kasimir returns home to Minnesota to perform in a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at her friend Cordelia Thorn's St. Paul theater. As it turns out, Joanna has a lot to be afraid of—her ex-husband, Gordon, who once served prison time for stalking her, may be back to his old tricks. Joanna enlists her old chum Jane to tail Gordon. Meanwhile, Jane's best friend, David—who happens to be Joanna's brother—shows up in the Twin Cities carrying secrets that he's afraid to reveal even to Jane. When Gordon turns up dead, David looks like the most plausible suspect. In fact, any number of Joanna's adoring fans might have bumped off her stalker. Hopefully, Jane's long-distance relationship with girlfriend Kenzie, who's mostly offstage, will receive more attention in the next installment. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is busy running two restaurants and maintaining a long-distance relationship when theater-director friend (and series regular) Cordelia Thorn invites mutual friend Joanna Kasimir, a reclusive Hollywood star, home to Minnesota to headline Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? An unwanted bouquet prompts Kasimir to fear that the stalker who made her flee Bel Air is back. Concurrently, David Carlson, Jane's longtime friend and Joanna's estranged brother, materializes at Jane's door. Pitting sib against sib in a deadly game, the fourteenth Lawless mystery gets highly dramatic. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (December 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312349440
• ISBN-13: 978-0312349448
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,724,873 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hart Keeps Getting Better, February 3, 2007

By 

K. Isserman "Kisserman" (Columbia, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Vision: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Jane Lawless Mysteries) (Hardcover)

It took me a while to discover Ellen Hart's award winning Jane Lawless mystery series. The Iron Girl had just released and I grabbed it up because of the great reviews it had garnered. While it was the 13th in the series, it was the first that I read, and I was hooked. I devoured every one in the series after that over a four month period. Then I anxiously anticipated Night Vision, the next in the series, and the wait was well worth it. This tightly written page turner was so enjoyable that it can be reread many times over.

Hart sets up the intrigue from the first pages. Actress Joanna Kasimir's stalker is back after a 10 year absence and jail term. He has raised the stakes this time and is more terrifying. At the same time Joanna's brother, David, an old high school chum of restaurateur Jane Lawless', goes missing for a month. We are led to believe that his disappearance may be related to his sister's stalker, but while Joanna is in Minneapolis starring in a theater production, David shows up unexpectedly. Both are seeking refuge but for different reasons. Hart though does not give away any details too early, and we must read on to uncover the mysteries. Private Investigator AJ Nolan is hired by Joanna. He makes Jane an offer she can't refuse, and she is on the case, trying to get to the bottom of the puzzling clues.

Night Vision floats effortlessly back and forth between the present day action and the stalking history between Joanna and Gordon Luberman, an ex-boyfriend. What Luberman is capable of has a chilling effect on the overall story. Hart's description of their disturbing history generates an element of dread and moves the plot along at a fast clip.

All is not foreboding though in a Jane Lawless mystery. Hart balances the story by peppering it with subtle Midwest humor. The continuity of characters in the series gives the reader a sense that we are visiting old friends. Her storytelling is clever, but not simple. She does not confuse the reader and leads us straight down the path to the logical conclusion, if we pay attention.

Night Vision was a fun Sunday afternoon read, but don't wait until Sunday for this entertaining story. I highly recommend any Jane Lawless mystery especially the latest, Night Vision.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Night Vision: a penetrating look, January 30, 2007

By 

carl brookins "Carl Brookins" (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Night Vision: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Jane Lawless Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This continuing line of interesting and thoughtful mystery novels is extended yet again by this author. Author Hart has been writing a long time and she knows the game well. Unlike many genre authors, she shows no evidence here of tiring of either the mystery culture or her principal characters, Jane Lawless and Cordelia Thorn.

The relationship between these two women, long time friends, is unusual in that they are quite different. Lawless is bright, quiet, introspective, protective of her personal space and many of her beliefs. One could be in a room for a good while with several people and not even be aware that she was present. Her good friend, Cordelia Thorn is another matter. Thorn is mostly over the top and that's where she lives. Loud, flamboyant, caustic and sometimes thoughtless, she dresses with flair and you'd know when she entered a room, even with fifty people already present. Thorn plays an important part in the novels as a sounding board for Lawless as she puzzles out the mystery, but sometimes you want to throttle her.

As is the case with all Hart's books, characters and their relationships, kind, warm, angry, distorted and dangerous, are at the heart of this novel. They drive the characters to and fro with passion, with cold calculation, sometimes to disastrous ends. This novel is darker, more convoluted and more complicated than Hart's earlier books. The back story alone could be an entire novel, yet such is Hart's skill as a writer, the back story of celebrity stalking is the trunk that supports the rest of the novel.

The novel is not without its problems. I wanted more examination of parasomnia and its effects on one of the characters, and I was troubled by a few of Cordelia's more caustic quips. Still, as with all her later novels, readers will be drawn to the characters and will live out this story with them. The swirling tensions and suspicious motivations of these well-drawn characters are compelling. This is a strong, novel, with a logical and complete resolution that will keep readers going and waiting eagerly for Jane's next adventure.

I remind readers of this review that the author is a friend of mine and we frequently tour together. Nonetheless, when you read Night Vision, I'm confident that you'll agree with my assessment.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intensely dramatic!, February 26, 2007

By 

Joyce McNeil (Metairie, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Vision: A Jane Lawless Mystery (Jane Lawless Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Jane Lawless' life is going well. She has a girlfriend, her dog Mouse and a new club that is going great. Her best friend Cordelia Thorn has settled into being `Mom' for her niece Hattie and now a long-time friend of Cordelia's is coming to town...to star in a play at the theatre where Cordelia works.

Joanna Kasimir is famous, talented and troubled. Just as it seems she may be recovering from a traumatic experience in her past, Joanna learns that the person who caused this trouble is back. Back and hell bent on taking up where they left off. Why? Are they doing it for kicks? Or do they feel that Joanna `owes' them something and they want to collect?

Along with Joanna's arrival in town, Jane gets her own visitor, one she didn't know was coming...Joanna's brother David. David is a guy Jane knew in college and a person she holds dear to her heart. Trouble seems to run in David and Joanna's family however. David is running from something and comes to the one person he knows can help...Jane. Why didn't he run to his sister? Who is he running from?

Just as they think they have the answers, someone changes the questions when a man is found murdered. Who did it? The number one suspect is Joanna's brother David. Even though Jane knows he couldn't have done it, there are several things about David's behavior that even she can't explain.

Then, to complicate things even further, Cordelia's sister, Octavia, Hattie's mother, reenters the picture stirring other things up. After so long, why is she in town now? Cordelia's very much interested in that answer herself. It's now a three-way race for Jane and Cordelia - can they solve the mystery about David, discover why Octavia is really back and keep themselves from being the killer's next victims?

Ellen Hart is one of the truly great fiction writers. From her first book in the Jane Lawless series, Hallowed Murder, all the way through to the current one, readers are locked into a dynamic, suspense-filled journey as our heroines' work to discover clues to mysteries, escape from killers and find love.