Amazon.com Amazon.com Reviews (ISBN 0345404947, Mass Market Paperback)

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.