Carmen and Julia seem like the perfect couple: until an old lover returns from the past... and turns up again a month
Youthful copy editor and amateur sleuth Carmen Ramirez lives in Frontier City, Oklahoma, with her graduate student lover Julia. Carmen's former close friend pops in and threatens their domestic tranquility by tempting Carmen and antagonizing a member of Julia's gay and lesbian coalition. The friend disappears and two weeks later turns up dead. Police jail the antagonized gay, who pleads for Carmen's help. Lightweight plotting, shallow characterization, and graphic sex make this a marginal selection for appropriate collections. Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.
In her second outing (after Edited Out), lesbian newspaper editor Carmen Ramirez finds intolerance in the heartland. Frontier City, Okla., is Bible-belt country?not the easiest place to be openly gay, even on a university campus where Carmen and her grad-student lover, Julia, have managed to carve out a life for themselves. The normally faithful Carmen finds herself in a difficult situation, however, when an old friend, Antoinette (Toni) Stewart, comes back into her life. What begins as a simple romantic dilemma turns into something much uglier when Toni is murdered. The prime suspect, a combative man in their lesbian and gay group, pleads with Carmen to find the real killer. Although not convinced of his innocence, Carmen reluctantly agrees. When the body of a gay man turns up close to where Toni was found, it seems likely that someone is targeting lesbians and gays. Haddock does a credible job with the feisty Carmen's complex character, but other cast members are stiff, either too abrasive or too good to ring true. (Oct.) Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.
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