A Small Sacrifice (A Jane Lawless Mystery) [Mass Market Paperback]

Ellen Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 29, 1995

When Cordelia Thorn ventures to Summer Green, Wisconsin, for a reunion with some old college friends, she finds trouble in paradise. Twenty-plus years have definitely changed things. Soap opera star Diana has become an alcoholic. Curt and Annie's marriage is falling apart. Orson is hostile and surly. And Theo, the most passionate of them all, suddenly dies -- of an apparent heart attack.

Alarmed, Cordelia sends for her old friend Jane Lawless to do some quiet snooping. Together they follow their hunches -- into the not-so-carefree past and back to the troubled present, where they find a single match could blow up all their lives....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the fifth superior Jane Lawless mystery, St. Paul theater director Cordelia Thorn and five old college chums from the '70's rally to help a sixth, alcoholic actress Diana Stanwood: they are going to visit Diana's new theater in Wisconsin and, with the help of a therapist, persuade Diana to enter a clinic. But, as Cordelia observes, "something isn't right." Much of what's wrong swirls around Theo Donati, an enigmatic classmate who spent seven years in prison for impersonating an IRS agent back in college. He is the object of Diana's unexplained hostility; his presence sends a ripple through the shaky marriage of Curt and Annie Whittig (Theo and Curt were once lovers); and a barroom brawl erupts between him and former roommate Orson Albern. When Theo dies of apparently "natural" causes, Cordelia summons Jane to help investigate. Hart (A Killing Cure) sends Jane and Cordelia, who are lesbians but not lovers, through an absorbing plot that is driven by romantic and competitive connections that convincingly cross genders. A finale with a twist surprises while staying fully in keeping with what has gone before.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Artistic director Cordelia Thorn and four of her former college coterie-all theater majors-plan an "intervention" for the sixth member of their group: alcoholic friend Diana, who has opened a playhouse in Summer Green, Wisconsin. When one of their number dies at the table, suspicious Cordelia calls upon astute sleuth (and lesbian restaurateur) Jane Lawless for help. Heated interrogations and frantic surveilling apparently bring them no closer to the truth; meanwhile, Diana continues to indulge. Hart (A Killing Cure, LJ 9/1/93) reveals herself to be a fine author as she deftly handles this sexually diverse batch of characters, rural setting, and focused plot.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett (November 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345391136
• ISBN-13: 978-0345391131
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,685,787 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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Small Sacrifice, April 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Small Sacrifice (A Jane Lawless Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

A Small Sacrifice, of the Jane Lawless Mystery series by Ellen Hart, is thrilling and full of suspense.
Hart introduces the six characters (Diana, Curt, Cordelia, Annie,Theo, and Orson) early on in college life at the university of Minnesota as the Shevlin Undergroud. Several years later they reunite in Summer Green, Wisconsin to help out friend Diana with a soon to be fatal drinking problem. The once successful actress moved to Summer Green after her partner, Jill, passed away and restored an old church into a theater. As the friends gather to help save Diana's life one ends up dead with no explanation for the death. Cordelia, a member of the Shevlin Underground ,calls in her friend from back in Minneapolis, amateur detective and restauranteur Jane Lawless, to help her figure out the missing peices of the murder of her mysterious friend.
The book keeps the reader on the edge, throwing in twists in every imaginable place. The plot is creative and unpredictable, and ultimately appealing to those with a love for mystery novels.

3.0 out of 5 stars We want Jane!, August 26, 2010

By 

Cheryl A. Reynolds "Spuddie" (Minneapolis, MN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Small Sacrifice (Jane Lawless Mystery, A) (Paperback)

#5 Jane Lawless mystery, featuring the lesbian restaurateur from Minneapolis. In this book, Jane's friend Cordelia figures more heavily as it involves a group of theatre friends Cordelia has known since college days. The first part of the book takes place in 1972 to provide the backstory, and then moves to 1994 (when the book was written) at a reunion of the group. Diana, the member who made it the biggest, has bought an old church in a small town in Wisconsin and rehabilitated it into a theatre.

The problem is, Diana needs a bit of rehab herself--her lifelong love of alcohol has fried her liver and her physician has given her only a year to live if she doesn't reform. Orson, another of the group, contacts all the former members and proposes that they do an "intervention" with the help of a trained psychiatrist and get her into a rehab program. Cordelia agrees somewhat reluctantly to participate, putting her own rehearsal schedule in her assistant's hands for a few days to attend the grand opening of the theatre, after which the intervention is to occur. When another of the group, Theo, ends up dead before that can happen, Cordelia calls Jane (who knows most of the group members, if only slightly) and given her past sleuthing history, asks her to come up and poke her nose in--it's being called a heart attack, but seems very suspicious.

I was a little puzzled by the relationship between these group members--they are touted as the best of friends, but almost all of the relationships within them as well as the group dynamic itself was very negative and stormy with a lot more prickliness and aggravation than friendship displayed. I can't imagine wanting to willingly be part of such a group. Of course a group that made nice and was happy and without conflict wouldn't have made much of a story and there wouldn't be a reason for murder I guess, but all that tension got hard to read about after awhile. The mystery itself couldn't really be figured out until later in the book when the clues started dropping, although I did make some fairly reasonable guesses early on.

I like these characters, but this wasn't my favorite in the series--hope that Jane is back at the forefront in the next book.