Robbers Wine (A Jane Lawless mystery) [Paperback]

Ellen Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2001 | Series: A Jane Lawless mystery

Jane and her sidekick, Cordelia Thorn, set out to Pokegama Lake for some rest and recuperation. Instead they end up investigating a mysterious death in the town's most prominent family. Twisted family values keep them on their toes, as they wonder if each step will be their last.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In another of her popular Jane Lawless mysteries, Robber's Wine, Ellen Hart weaves a delightful whodunit around a family secret hidden for years in the deep woods of Minnesota. The bonds that pull families together and apart become the very clues Jane and her sidekick Cordelia Thorn must sift through before they can get to the bottom of a revered family matriarch's murder.

Robber's Wine starts off slowly as Jane and Cordelia head to a much-needed summer vacation at Pokegama Lake, away from their hectic Minneapolis lives. On the way they decide to give old friend Anne Dumont a ride to her family home on the edge of Fosh Lake, where they stop to visit Anne's mother, Belle, another close friend. Upon arrival, however, they find that Belle has completely disappeared--the first intriguing step into a labyrinth of secrets that extends over three generations of the prominent Dumont clan.

Ellen Hart, winner of the 1994 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, draws out her latest taut thriller clue by buried clue. Jane's style is reminiscent of all the great amateur sleuths, as almost by accident she finds herself knee deep in the story. Jane is a likable sleuth who uses a combination of commonsense and persistence to find the murderer--not to mention a certain innate nosiness. It's her believability, and Cordelia's quirky sense of humor, that makes Robber's Wine such a page-turning pleasure to read. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As Minnesota restaurant owner Jane Lawless begins her vacation, the murder of a friend's mother sidetracks her in this seventh in the series (Faint Praise). Heading north on vacation, Jane and her friend Cordelia Thorne, take another friend, Anne Dumont, to her mother Belle's house where an urgent family meeting has been called. But when they arrive, Belle's lover, Helvi, says that Belle is missing. As Jane helps search for Belle, Anne's sister and brother arrive. The next morning, Belle's body is found at the foot of an incline. Jane finds Belle's purse with a note inside from Quinn Fosh, the town ne'er-do-well, saying he knows a secret about one of her children. Soon after Jane learns that Quinn was Belle's unacknowledged half-brother, he is killed at a Fourth of July fireworks display. Who is responsible for the deaths and why? The brother, whose political ambitions overshadow his judgment? The abused sister, who is running from her crazed husband? Or stolid Anne, who needs her mother's money to survive? Finding suspects in this transparent mystery among the children of a wealthy small-town family, Lambda-winner and former chef Hart tackles personal ambition, marital relationships and women's roles yesterday and today.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The Women's Press (June 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0704347199
• ISBN-13: 978-0704347199
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,302,091 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

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mystery has its moments, December 4, 2000

By 

"kathrynlively" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robber's Wine (Mass Market Paperback)

One could say that Belle Dumont's family skeletons were buried so deep in the proverbial closet that one might see a bony hand slip underneath the door and drag Belle inside, lest any dark secrets concerning the Dumont's genealogical line and questionable acquisition of wealth be revealed. Unfortunately, on the day Belle called her three grown children to finally discuss the matter, that bony hand did appear in the form of a murderer who silenced Belle with a quick shove on a steep cliff, shocking an entire town who refused to believe that anyone would willfully kill a woman who appeared to have no enemies.

As young children, Belle's offspring--Anne, Lyle, Melody--once relied on a concoction called "Robber's Wine" (in actuality, a mixture of various household cleansers poured into a wineglass) to keep them from harm. This talisman, they believed, could tempt any nocturnal burglar into taking a sip, thus causing immediate death and therefore saving the family. As adults, they now realize that no elixir could have saved their mother from the past that obviously returned to haunt, and murder, her. For the Dumont children, Belle's demise is the beginning of a painful journey that threatens to destroy the family.

For Anne's friends, Jane Lawless and Cordelia Thorn, Belle's death mean not only delaying a much desired vacation, but also the taking the opportunity to solve a prickling mystery.

Robber's Wine is the seventh installment of the award-winning Jane Lawless mystery series, and, thus far, the first book in the series I have been privileged to read. Often I am hesitant to start a series mystery novel without first reading those that precede it, but restraints on time would not allow me to research Jane Lawless's history of solving crimes. However, after finishing Robber's Wine I can say that it is not entirely necessary to go back to Hart's previous efforts--this novel reads as fresh as the first installment of any series, there is no baggage required on this trip.

All one needs to know is that Jane Lawless is Minneapolis restaurateur and a "widowed" lesbian, her companion having died of cancer some years before the current events in Robber's Wine. Her friend, Cordelia, is an eccentric theater director whose sexual preference is not blatantly explained in this book (it may have been, however, in earlier novels), though her penchant for wisecracking and dramatic overtures is. She is Maryann to Jane's Cybill, though not as conscious a dresser.

With Jane's careful assessments of Belle's murder and the events that result from or surround it and Cordelia's perfectly timed wit (a scene involving Cordelia, a toothless elderly woman, and a bowl of hard candy comes to mind), Hart has created an enthralling mystery. Tensions play high in this novel: the three Dumont children not only become suspicious of outsiders (Melody's psychotic estranged husband, a long-lost uncle demanding his share of Belle's estate) but also of each other, especially when Robber's Wine becomes a factor in a second murder. Add the immediate disdain of townsfolk upon learning that Belle's roommate, Helvi, was in actuality Belle's lover, and Robber's Wine is a drama laced with powerful emotions and enough twists to keep one stumped until the last chapter.