Synopses & Reviews
Ellen Harts newest Lambda Award Finalist The Mortal Groove is a haunting and accomplished tale of dark secrets.
Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up the party with a backroom proposition for her father: Howd he like to be the states next governor?
Flattered, Ray Lawless, a retired attorney, agrees to run, and the latecomers sprint to the state capital is a huge success until reporters start digging. He and his family are fair game, but worse than that, so are the men running his campaign. Their secrets, involving the mysterious death of a young woman, have been buried since the summer they all came home from Vietnam. Unfortunately for Jane and her father, those secrets wont stay that way for long in Harts ominous addition to her widely acclaimed mystery series.
Review
“Engrossing . . . Excellent election-year reading.”
---Publishers Weekly
“Hart offers another solid entry in her entertaining Jane Lawless mystery series… Loyalty, fairness, and the law are compellingly probed in this increasingly thoughtful series.”
---Booklist on The Mortal Groove
“Hart is at the top of her game.”
---Curve Magazine on The Mortal Groove
“Pitting sib against sib in a deadly game, the fourteenth Lawless mystery gets highly dramatic.”
---Booklist on Night Vision
“Jane Lawless and her trusty sidekick, Cordelia Thorn, are the most refreshing, entertaining, and cerebrally stimulating duo since Rex Stouts unbeatable combo of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.”
---Baltimore Alternative
Synopsis
Ellen Hart was named the 2017 MWA Grand Master, the most distinguished lifetime achievement award offered in the mystery community.
Ellen Hart's newest Lambda Award Finalist The Mortal Groove is a haunting and accomplished tale of dark secrets.
Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up the party with a backroom proposition for her father: How'd he like to be the state's next governor?
Flattered, Ray Lawless, a retired attorney, agrees to run, and the latecomer's sprint to the state capital is a huge success until reporters start digging. He and his family are fair game, but worse than that, so are the men running his campaign. Their secrets, involving the mysterious death of a young woman, have been buried since the summer they all came home from Vietnam. Unfortunately for Jane and her father, those secrets won't stay that way for long in Hart's ominous addition to her widely acclaimed mystery series.
About the Author
ELLEN HART, “a top novelist in the cultishly popular gay mystery genre” (Entertainment Weekly), is also a Lambda and Minnesota Book AwardWinner. The author of fifteen mysteries featuring Jane Lawless, she lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visit her at www.EllenHart.com.
Reading Group Guide
1. In this mystery, Hart explores a theme of violence--how violent experience changes people. Discuss this theme in relation to both Peter Lawless and Randy Turk. 2. Early in the book, Randy talks about his loneliness as a boy and how the desire to connect with other guys his age set him on a path that he might have fled from if hed understood where it would lead. How was loneliness complicit in Randys demise? 3. Would you say that Larry Wilton was molded by his time in Vietnam, or do you think he would have been the same kind of man, regardless of his war-time experiences? 4. How do you think what happened to Peter in that travel trailer at the end of the book will change him? 5. Do you believe Peter was right to take Mia, or should he have left her in foster-care and tried another way to bring her home? 6. Was there redemption in this book? For any of the characters? 7. How do you think Peters decision to take Mia will effect his future with his wife? 8. Jane is appalled by what Peter does to Larry Wilton. Do you think she should forgive him? Forget? Turn Peter into the police? How will this alter their relationship? 9. Peter is a damaged soul, looking for a way to be a hero. Larry Wilton is considered a hero by his friends because he saved their lives many times over. What is a true hero? Do we use that term too easily today? 10. In this story, some cracks begin to appear in Janes relationship with Kenzie. Do you think they are a good match? 11. Many of the characters in this book are keeping secrets. Can you name some of them? Is not telling something you know the same as a lie? 12. In chapter sixteen Randy sweats his way through a difficult conversation with his daughter, Katie. “Randy was having a hard time looking at her. In a flash, it came to him. He was afraid of her, of her judgement. He felt suddenly old -- an old man sensing how impossible it was to reduce the truth of his life to something simple enough to satisfy a child.” Have you ever felt that way? 13. Hart touches on race tensions during the Vietnam era. Did her portrayal seem realistic? 14. Harts books have been called “Cozies with a Brain.” Where would you place this novel within the context of mystery fiction? Cozy/traditional? Hard-boiled? Soft-boiled?