From Publishers Weekly
Lambda Award-winner Hart continues the story of lesbian Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless (Robber's Wine, 1996) in this slightly bland tale of a chillingly dysfunctional family. Jane's new tenant is Elliot Beauman, a children's-book author who seems to have a psychic touch when it comes to finding killers. Down the street, his sister Patricia moves in and is helping Jane plan a neighborhood get-together. As they get to know each other, Jane learns that Patricia's former fiance in Iowa recently committed suicide after she broke up with him. Jane is soon contacted by a PI who has been hired by the fiance's parents who believe their son may have been murdered. The more Jane learns about Elliot and Patricia, the more they trouble her, and her worries increase when she discovers that her house is where their older brother once suffered a paralyzing fall from the roof. Why did they move back to their old neighborhood, with its tragic memories? As Jane probes for an answer, the bones of a young girl are unearthed in her backyard, and she suspects that one of the siblings knows way too much about murder. Hart adeptly wraps up the puzzles, and she also keeps questions about Jane's private life sufficiently unresolved to lure fans back for the next installment. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Sometime sleuth Jane Lawless (Robber's Wine, LJ 8/96), who runs a restaurant in Minneapolis, finds that a man she rents to supposedly experiences psychic visions of murder. Jane's friend, the inimitable Cordelia Thorn, still assists. An engaging series.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hart does it again--gives us another winner in her series featuring Jane Lawless, Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth. This time, eerie games of deceit, half-truths, secret pasts, and hidden bodies come right into Jane's own home. Her new tenant, Elliot, turns out to be a psychic helping police solve murders, and his sister, beautiful Patricia Kastner, whose fiance supposedly committed suicide, becomes the subject of scrutiny by a private investigator. Patricia is more than a little interested in Jane, however, and Jane's lover, Julia, remains so inscrutable that Jane starts putting together a few essential pieces and realizes that they just don't add up at all. Throughout the devious developments, Jane's devoted friend, the irrepressible Cordelia Thorne, remains a loyal supporter and sidekick, illuminates some of Jane's shadowy past, and shows a gentler, more concerned and caring side of her own nature than in previous Lawless capers. How delightful it is to see not only the star of a series but a secondary player, too, develop subtly yet incisively as genuinely three-dimensional characters--yet another indication of Hart's skill as this jewel of a lesbian detective series continues to flourish. Whitney Scott


From Kirkus Reviews
Little does Jane Lawless know what she's getting into when she takes on Elliot Beauman as a tenant for her vacant Minneapolis apartment. Apart from writing children's books, Elliot has an unusual sideline: He's a psychic who occasionally helps the police in their investigations. (His latest reluctant coup will bring Jane's brother Peter out begging for a TV interview, and at exactly the worst time in Peter's own private life.) But Elliot's family is even more disquieting than he is. His contractor father, Otto Kastner, is an abusive bully; his mother, Virginia Kastner, has never recovered from the accident that crippled Elliot's late brother years ago; and his sister, Patricia Kastner, a predatory flirt who Jane's current lover, Dr. Julia Martinsen, regards with jealous suspicion, has a romantic past as checkered as the flag at the Indy 500. After a disturbing encounter with a p.i.hired by Virginia's mother to see whether the vodka-and-Valium death of Patricia's last boyfriend was really suicideJane decides a little discreet detecting of her own might be in order, and soon uncovers a whole string of eerily similar suicides. But events are already moving faster than she is: When Otto, trying to ingratiate himself with Jane, sends out a man to install a new porch for her gratis, the workman promptly excavates a skeleton in her back yardwhich turns out, inevitably, to be the old Kastner yard. Workmanlike, overlong, and not up to the endearing nuttiness of Faint Praise (1995). -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Hart's fans continue to swell as she consistently delivers a rich, full-bodied banquet with every book."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Hart adeptly wraps up the puzzles, and she also keeps questions about Jane's private life sufficiently unresolved to lure fans back for the next installment."--Publishers Weekly



Review
"Hart's fans continue to swell as she consistently delivers a rich, full-bodied banquet with every book."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Hart adeptly wraps up the puzzles, and she also keeps questions about Jane's private life sufficiently unresolved to lure fans back for the next installment."--Publishers Weekly



Book Description
Jane Lawless has worked hard to make her Minneapolis restaurant a success, and she's finally reaping the financial rewards. Yet even the demands and excitement of being a popular restauranteurs and living the good life don't bring the same satisfaction they once did. Jane needs a bigger challenge. A mystery to solve. The thrill of the chase...

When Jane rents her quaint third-story apartment to a new tenant, children's book author Elliot Beauman, she unwittingly opens the door to a sinister, decades-old mystery that has been waiting patiently to unfold--in her own house. Meanwhile, Jane assist a detective in tracking down clues about her new neighbor, Patricia, whose husband died mysteriously. Patricia is eager to become friends, or more...even though she knows Jane is immersed in a long-distance relationship with the attractive but secretive Dr. Julia Martinsen. little does Jane know that a strange man upstairs, an attractive neighbor, and a volatile love affair are just the beginning of her problems.



From the Publisher
"Compelling . . . a novel that is rich in character and weighted with the theme that love has the power to kill as well as to heal." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "Hart adeptly wraps up the puzzles, and she also keeps questions about Jane's private life sufficiently unresolved to lure fans back for the next installment." --Publishers Weekly

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jane Lawless lives in a rambling, three-story house on Minneapolis's Lake Harriet with her aunt and uncle and, usually, a tenant in the third-floor apartment. Her newest renter is Elliot Beauman, a writer who seems nice but who's just graced the newspapers with an account of a murder he witnessed but didn't see: Elliot says he's psychic, and his latest visions have been of murder. Lately Jane has her hands full in her personal life, wrestling with long hours at the Lyme House Restaurant and a long-distance and often volatile relationship with Julia, whose medical practice keeps her busy and far away. So the last thing Jane needs is a strange man living upstairs in her own home. Little does she know that her troubles are only beginning.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Lambda Award-winner Hart continues the story of lesbian Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless (Robber's Wine, 1996) in this slightly bland tale of a chillingly dysfunctional family. Jane's new tenant is Elliot Beauman, a children's-book author who seems to have a psychic touch when it comes to finding killers. Down the street, his sister Patricia moves in and is helping Jane plan a neighborhood get-together. As they get to know each other, Jane learns that Patricia's former fianc in Iowa recently committed suicide after she broke up with him. Jane is soon contacted by a PI who has been hired by the fianc 's parents who believe their son may have been murdered. The more Jane learns about Elliot and Patricia, the more they trouble her, and her worries increase when she discovers that her house is where their older brother once suffered a paralyzing fall from the roof. Why did they move back to their old neighborhood, with its tragic memories? As Jane probes for an answer, the bones of a young girl are unearthed in her backyard, and she suspects that one of the siblings knows way too much about murder. Hart adeptly wraps up the puzzles, and she also keeps questions about Jane's private life sufficiently unresolved to lure fans back for the next installment. (Aug.)

Library Journal