Deaths of Jocasta

Rating:
Summary: READ IT FOR YOURSELF!
Review: A previous reviewer must have forgotten that some people want to read fiction to be drawn away from the world of reality. Not everyone wants to be entertained by reality and solve world problems. Mickey Knight is exciting, moody, funny, sexy, strong, vulnerable, and TUFF, and the author develops the characters throughout the series. You will care about her and the other characters too. The story is full of action, mystery, romance with steamy romantic sex and just plain sex. Remember, this is the story of a street smart PI, so don't let an occasional bit of not so sexy talk from a sex scene make you miss this great series. It is one of 'THE BEST' written detective series featuring a lesbian. If you only read stories about perfect characters, with "NORMAL" everyday problems,who have perfect sex and during sex never talk the least bit dirty, then maybe you need to SpIcE up your reading with a little Mickey Knight! I say try the book for yourself and walk thru the streets of NEW ORLEANS with Mickey.

Rating:
Summary: READ IT FOR YOURSELF!
Review: A previous reviewer must have forgotten that some people want to read fiction to be drawn away from the world of reality. Not everyone wants to be entertained by reality and solve world problems. Mickey Knight is exciting, moody, funny, sexy, strong, vulnerable, and TUFF, and the author develops the characters throughout the series. You will care about her and the other characters too. The story is full of action, mystery, romance with steamy romantic sex and just plain sex. Remember, this is the story of a street smart PI, so don't let an occasional bit of not so sexy talk from a sex scene make you miss this great series. It is one of 'THE BEST' written detective series featuring a lesbian. If you only read stories about perfect characters, with "NORMAL" everyday problems,who have perfect sex and during sex never talk the least bit dirty, then maybe you need to SpIcE up your reading with a little Mickey Knight! I say try the book for yourself and walk thru the streets of NEW ORLEANS with Mickey.

Rating:
Summary: J.M Redmann's ¿Deaths of Jocasta¿ is excellent!
Review: J.M Redmann's 'Deaths of Jocasta' is excellent! The best PI novel I've read in a long time. I only wish that New Victoria or Avon Book would reprint it so I don't have to make friends leave their first born as collateral when borrowing mine. This second Micky Knight mystery picks up a couple months after 'Death by the Riverside'. The action is fast paced, the characters are complex, richly drawn and well motivated and the humor is wry. (Online used books stores might have it if Amazon.com can't find it.)

Rating:
Summary: Better even than the first!
Review: J.M Redmann's `Deaths of Jocasta' is excellent! The best PI novel I've read in a long time. I only wish that New Victoria or Avon Book would reprint it so I don't have to make friends leave their first born as collateral when borrowing mine. This second Micky Knight mystery picks up a couple months after `Death by the Riverside'. The action is fast paced, the characters are complex, richly drawn and well motivated and the humor is wry. (Online used books stores might have it if Amazon.com can't find it.)

Rating:
Summary: Two mysteries rolled into one.
Review: Kudos to JM Redmann for writing another wonderful installment in the Micky Knight series. "The Deaths of Jocasta" is much more than the case Micky has been hired to investigate. Not only is the reader treated to a well-written mystery and realistic plot, but the dark past of Micky slowly unfolds throughout the book as she gives up alcohol and casual sex. Micky essentially fights her inner battle alone when her closest friends question her ability to remain sober and celibate. She doesn't know if they are friends or foes.

Will Micky be able to figure who is behind the threatening letters and shocking deaths of women before she becomes a victim herself? Will Micky be able to become lovers with Cordelia without putting her foot in her mouth? Will Danny reconcile her hurt feelings towards Micky for their failed relationship after college? Read this book yourself to find the answers to these and other questions. You certainly won't regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Better even than the first!
Review: Mickey Knight is fabulous. I loved "Riverside" - this is even better, if that is possible. And Redmann is the only writer I have come across who actually writes great lesbian sex.

Rating:
Summary: A really enjoyable book
Review: Micky Knight is a tough, "hardboiled" lesbian private investigator who gets quite "bumped around" while trying to solve the difficult cases brought to or rather "dropped" on her. Although sometimes a bit hard to believe, the Micky Knight series is enjoyable and good enough to keep you awake reading until three in the morning.

Rating:
Summary: "Get Real" she retorted.
Review: The rave reviews here mystify me. Is the standard for lesbian novels so low that a novel like this is hailed as terrific? I guess the Mickey Knight character fulfills some sort of fantasy about being a dashingly handsome lesbian who has the entire straight and gay female population of the Southeast panting over her, but I'm afraid that page after page of this nonsense starts to wear pretty thin after awhile. It would be nice if a few lesbian authors at least tried once in a while to write books that reflect the lives of the readers who buy their books, rather than these unbearably shallow Danielle Steel for ..... mysteries and romances that seem to be the only game in town. This book has all of the subtleties of a cartoon--where is there any relationship between two lesbian women in this book that has any connection to the real world? We have Mickey the vulnerable babe with the tough exterior who's had an agonizing childhood but tries to bear up bravely. She sleeps with a series of fairly interchangable women, none of whom seem to be particularly important to her, other than what they can provide her in bed. It is amazing how our Mickey can attract a wealthy patron, a medical doctor, a district attorney, a police detective, among others, all in one novel. One wonders what they see in her, as I have not yet discovered what it is that makes Mickey so irresistable to these women. Were Mickey a "he" rather than a "she" it is unlikely that she'd get away with some of these antics. There is a creepy "victimy" quality to Mickey that is annoying. The constant references to her miserable childhood become tiresome and the ranting about her evil Aunt Greta and cousin Bayard get old fast. Is all of this trauma and abuse supposed to endear the character to us, or excuse her bad behavior? I just kept wishing she'd go to therapy. If you are looking for an escapist romp filled with one sex scene ("stick your finger up me" was one memorable, romantic line) after another where everybody "retorts" rather than "says" dialogue, then this is the book for you. If you're interested in anything deeper than that I suggest you look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Micky Knight is back. Laissez les bons temp rouler!
Review: The thirty years old, Barnard educated and underemployed, out lesbian, private investigator, Micky Knight has accepted a job overseeing security for a very exclusive and "festive" annual party hosted by Emma Auerbach. Of an old money New Orleans family, Emma has been a friend and mentor to Mickey for years. Sober and celibate for over six weeks, Micky is beginning to face the demons from which the liquor and sex allowed her to hide for over a decade. Although determined to remain sober, Micky does hope the weekend party brings an end to her loneliness, especially when the good doctor, Cordelia James arrives. Micky lost her heart to Cordelia months ago, during the events of "Death by the Riverside." But Emma's annual gay-la ends abruptly when the body of a young woman is found in the woods on her estate and everyone returns to the city.

At loose ends back in New Orleans, Micky goes to the library to check out some Dorothy Sayers books. "Some of her Lord Peter Wimsey books, not so much for detective ideas, but for dating tips." About which Micky concludes, "via Lord Peter, the method for making a woman fall in love with an offbeat detective was to save her from the gallows by proving her innocent. Somehow that didn't seem to have much bearing on Cordelia and myself." (p55). Of course, Lord Peter is right!

Life is complicated for Micky and company. More bodies show up near Cordelia's clinic. When they turn out to be young women who were patients at the clinic, the police see Cordelia as the prime suspect. Cordelia decides to hire Micky to investigate. Meanwhile an uncharacteristically restless, NOPD Detective Sgt., Joanne, increasingly angered by these events, is spending more time with Micky. Joanne senses Micky has similar ghosts in her past.

With the same tough, first-person voice of the first Micky Knight novel, Redmann directs the fast paced action of "Jocasta." Micky tracks down leads connecting the pasts of several characters with the current events. And the truth turns out to involve a dangerous combination of extremists --who justify murder in the name of life-- and people who crave old-fashioned, hateful revenge. Will Micky be able to take Lord Peter's advice?

Redmann presents serious and painful issues without hiding the pain, becoming pedantic, or losing her sense of humor. Her characters are well rounded, interesting women who deal authentically with their problems. One of the most impressive examples of this is Redmann's handling of child sexual abuse. Accurate and realistic, the depictions of the abuse and its ramifications run a spectrum of forms, parental reactions, and consequences from Micky to Joanne to Cordelia. This thread actually evolves throughout the Micky Knight novels as Micky has the opportunity to grow and heal.

This re-release of "Deaths of Jocasta" by Bella Books is a must for mystery lovers and in this reader's opinion, the covers of "Jocasta" and "Riverside" are the best Bella has produced to date. Ten years have passed since "Jocasta" was originally published. It is pinned to the early 1990s by technology --the lack of cell phones and email via the world wide web-- and Joanne's early adolescence (and rest of the crowd's ages in relation to her) is set prior to the Roe v. Wade decision (1973). However, the issues of the novel are very relevant today and Redmann treats the women struggling to survive them with respect and dignity. "Deaths of Jocasta" does not answer all the mysteries hovering in Micky's background. For that, readers should look for "The Intersection of Law and Desire" and "Lost Daughters," in order. Take Micky Knight home with you and laissez les bons temp rouler!