Murder in the Collective

Pam Nilsen and her twin sister Penny inherit a printing business when their parents are killed in an auto accident. They turn it into a socially active collective with a black woman, a Chicano (former lover of Pam and currently of Penny), a hippy leftover from the sixties, and a Filipina antiMarcos activist. When Elena, the lesbian feminist new member says the lesbian typesetters collective, B-Violet, wants to merge with them (put up to it by her lover Fran, who was one of the B-Violet founders), lots of bad feeling is stirred up on both sides--though Pam meets Hadley Harper, who brings her out, and they play detective together after the B-Violet shop is smashed and Jeremy, the hippie printer, is shot dead. The book seems fairly dated show more in seventies consciousness-raising oppressed-peoples-awareness cop-suspecting ways, and it's mostly about "relationships" but in a fairly shallow way: how does Pam feel about being a lesbian? how does Penny feel about her sister coming out? how does Pam feel about her sister sleeping with her former lover? These questions, if posed, are answered only superficially. Pam doesn't really solve the murder; she justs finds out that the Filipina did it. show less

A little dated now in 2009.