This book fast-paced, well-written, and peopled with interesting characters. A thoroughly enjoyable read for folks who love mysteries, and this one is all the more satisfying because it takes on an important social issue: animal abuse. In addition to having crafted her story skilfully, the author handles language beautifully -- the book is full of delightful turns of phrase and striking imagery-- not what you'd expect in a quick reading mystery novel. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

In this Lambda Award winning first of the Caitlin Reece series, the wisecracking Victoria, British Columbia PI is called on to investigate the death of an operative placed in an illegal research lab by an animal advocacy group named Ninth Life. Feminist Bookstore News said of this book when it appeared in 1988: "A very accomplished first novel, distinguished by an elegant flair for description and an ovbious love of the language. This is a stunning first effort." I have to agree. This novel is head and shoulders above so many of the "women's mysteries" on the market -- it has a terrific heroine, great writing, and an important issue -- animal rights. Her secondary characters are terrific, too: her cats Repo and Jeoffrey, her Vietnamese friend Gray Ng, her mysterious computer hacker friend Francis the Ferrett, and her protege Lester. The Victoria locales are true-to-life: read all the books in her series

Ms Douglas is always a good read. This one was almost a primer in how to express, think about, deal with, rage. Made me think, made me sleep and then i went to the therapist. I am not sure about statistics, but in my life history, old and new, I've not known many women who dealt with anger well, much less outright rage. Therefore, I happen to like very much the subjects about which she chooses to write. I am looking forward to the next St Cyr novel.

Caitlin Reece is a former attorney who has changed career paths becoming a private investigator. This book is the fourth Caitlin Reece Mystery and the first that I have read. The book takes off like a rocket with the murder of one of Reece's former classmates. However, the mystery and suspense virtually end there. The murder consumes Reece's mind and heart with memories. Past memories and extenuating circumstances make taking the case a difficult decision for Reece. More time is spent chasing past memories then is spent on solving the murder itself. Taking the reflections out would make the book 2/3rds smaller.

It is an interesting and easy to read story; however, lacking the "on the edge of your seat" suspense of a good mystery. This is my first experience with Caitlin Reece the Private Investigator, and this experience does not convince me of her skills. Comparatively, Jaye Maiman's Robin Miller, who also changed careers to become a private investigator, is much more convincing. This experience has not convinced me to read the previous Caitlin Reece mysteries right away. Perhaps when I've no other lesbian mysteries left to read I'll return again to Caitlin Reece.

I completely disagree with the previous reviewer sho praised Jaye Maiman's (ugh!) works over those of Ms. Douglas. I have read all of LWD's books and find all of them compelling, intelligent, literate and thankfully free from the leering [implications] that characterizes so many lesbian so-called works of literature. We mystery readers want a good mystery, not thinly-disguised soft porn. Whereas I don't think this is Douglas' best work (read Ninth Life and Rage of Maidens for that) it is good -- very good -- and head and shoulders about lesser lights like Jaye Maiman. It's in this book that Caitlin as a champion of kids emerges as a theme, and this is carried over into subsequent works. If I could compare Caitlin to anyone, I would compare her to Andrew Vacch's character Burke in her advocacy for the underdog. Caitlin is a much softer character (I mean his in a good way) and is unlike Burke in that respect, but I see many similarities. If this reviewer/reader ignores LWD's other works, she does so at her loss. Ms. Douglas is a talented and thoughtful writer and I have enjoyed every one of her books.

This book doesn't show the greatest plot or characterization skills you'll ever see, but it's a pleasantly lazy read. It has a mildly interesting if improbable plot and mildly interesting if improbable people. The protagonist is a wishy washy sort of person, but you can see flashes of interest there. There's a sort of pseudo love-interest character that ends up being more interesting than anyone else in the book -- I hope there'll be more about her in future books. It's unusual that in this book the protagonist -- a book order service person who inherits a boarding house from a possibly murdered aunt -- is not a detective herself and yet still manages to be friendly with someone who is -- the maybe future love interest. For anyone who isn't familiar with this author, both are women. Unfortunately, you could give this book to your ten year-old daughter without any fear of awkward questions. It isn't the greatest, but it's fine if you have nothing better to do, and it seems likely that the future ones will be better. I thought when I first read it that there was a spark of absurd humor here that's worth looking for in other books by this author, and I found after I read a few more that she does improve, although she still loves the really improbably situations. Still, how many books can we find that have lesbian characters that aren't villains or freaky friends that are just comic relief?

Lauren Wright Douglas has been a favorite author of mine for years. However I felt rather let down with this installation of the Allison O'Neal series. I finished the book in one night, & frankly it seemed as if an editor went scissor happy and cut out a lot of what happened. It was almost like an outline for the story instead of the whole story. What happened to all those "kooky" guests at the B&B, did they just disappear? Allison & Kerry don't seem to know each other any better by the end of this book than they did in the beginning of the first book.The only person we get to know any better in this book is Ossie. All in all, a very UNsatisfying read.

I know the author's previous Caitlin Reece series very well and approached both this book and DEATH AT LAVENDER BAY with caution -- but I needn't have worried. They measure up well. Both are stuffed with quirky characters, white-knuckle plot lines, and (you guessed it) a wisecracking heroine. I love it that she's a displaced California girl trying to come to grips with Oregon's weather! And the will-she or won't she relationship between Allison and her friend Kerry is well done. Of course there's a cat, and a precocious kid. It strikes me that people who go gaga over Laurie King and (god forbid) Katherine Forrest might do themselves a favor and read Lauren Wright Douglas. She's better than either or them. But start at the beginning -- in this series with DEATH AT LAVENDER BAY and in the Caitlin Reece series with THE ALWAYS ANONYMOUS BEAST. You won't regret it!