Kate Calloway

So, Cassidy goes undercover at a lesbian businesswomen's retreat as her clients to be girlfriend. Yep, where could that go wrong (oh, and the retreat goes until Cassidy and her actual girlfriend Maggie's first anniversary).

As evidenced by the title, this is the fourth in the Cassidy James mystery series. In this one Cassidy is hired by a very scared woman, a lesbian, Allison, who believes she's being threatened and perhaps someone's even trying hard to kill her. Martha recommends Cassidy, show more the PI, and after some convincing Cassidy agrees to help Allison.

Once Cassidy gets there and meets all the suspects (basically the entire executive board of the lesbian organization Women on Top, the ones who that are having the retreat). Of course the retreat's on top of a Mountain, and so Cassidy is pretty much on her own as she tries to figure out which woman is trying to harm Allison (while Cassidy also tries to stay faithful to her girlfriend as well, wouldn't want to skip the romantic part of the book).

I didn't really have a problem with the mystery. It wasn't the most inventive one ever. I sort of knew who did it at least 100 pages or so before the end of the book. I won't spoil why I knew of course, but, it was in there.

Still, even if boring, it was a well constructed mystery. My main problem was that I didn't like Allison, who was one of the main characters in the book, and so in it a lot. I tried to like her, but no matter how I looked at the character, even as I got deep into the book, I just couldn't stand her. I think it's generally a bad thing when you're reading a book and think, 'It'd be interesting if the killer succeeded... just a little bit'. Very bad thing.

But, there are eight books in the Cassidy James series (as of the reading of this fourth book), and I'm gonna try and read as many of them as I can find. And, this was a well written book, I just didn't like all the parts of it. show less

Yep. Ms. Calloway really writes about fluffy topics. Puppies, Kittens, (well the cats are pretty cool actually). Okay, I'll stop being sarcastic and be serious. I actually think it's a good thing that Calloway takes on hard subjects and does it pretty well.

This time it's women being terrorized in their own homes. Cassidy gets a call from one of her friends who's in a panic after someone breaks into her house and attacks her. But, that's just the start of the story.

The major subplot that show more takes up the rest of the novel is the love triangle between Cassidy's ex, the romance writer, and the new lady , the psych doctor. I do have to say that even though I wasn't really rooting for either lady in particular, I was a little bummed by how the triangle got resolved in this book. It seemed like in the books larger narrative the choice of who won was more of an afterthought.

Also, I wish there had been more Jessie and Jess Martin. They're two of my favorite characters. Still, it was a good book with a solid plot and some thriller (ok a lot of thriller) to add to the mystery part of the book. show less

Typical lesbian fiction. Takes place in a small town, this time in the Pacific Northwest. And the romance in the book follows the normal and unsurprising path as well.

But then, there's the mystery. A man whose not really liked in town is killed in a really gruesome way, and his niece hires Cassidy James, PI (newly minted) to find out who did it since the police have her as the prime suspect. Then a house on the same lake that Cassidy lives on goes up in flames and other things start show more happening around the small town of Cedar Hills and Cassie sees connections where no one else does. But, the question throughout the book is, is Cassie seeing real connections or not. And the question actually works and gives the book some literary tension. I also liked the mystery in general, although I had an inkling who it was who killed Walter for a lot of the book. Still, I liked how organically the mystery unfolded and it kept me guessing just a little bit. Not to mention the clues went from one to another without any 'magical' jumps that sometimes happen in mysteries.

I also liked the characters. They were each very unique and the way she came about them and interacted with them was in a very small town way that was authentic. show less

Cassidy James goes to college. Sort of. Some of the plots in the first four books in this series were a little lame, and this one on some levels was too.

Cassidy has just (sorta, since Cassidy and her exes never seem to make clean breaks) broken up with her girl friend Maggie, and she's having Turkey Day with all her friends. Martha, the police detective is on the case of an almost serial killer and she hits on the idea to have Cassidy go undercover at the local community college where two of show more the victims went. She becomes the TA for the drama professor, and boy oh boy does the drama professor have an interesting story too.

After Cassidy goes undercover the mystery goes along as a normal mystery does. Unfortunately I wasn't surprised by the twists and turns in the actual mystery and guessed a few of the red herrings as well as who did it pretty early on.

But, I don't really read the Cassidy James mysteries for the mystery, but for the character and the subplots. Cassidy was herself in this one, and I also liked the addition of Lauren (the Drama Professor) and her brother Corey. And then there's Grace. I'm not sure what Calloway is going to do in Sixth Degree, but I really, really liked the Grace character. Almost as much as I like the kid character of Jess.

A solid book in the series. Three stars for sure. show less