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A review by mweis
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
3.5
*I received an audio review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
It feels weird saying that this was a fun book because it is a murder mystery and it deals with some very heavy themes, but I did really enjoy it.
Lavender House is a queer historical murder mystery, set in 1952 San Francisco following Evander Mills who until recently had been a detective with the SFPD but was fired and evicted when he was caught in a raid on a gay bar and outed.
Personally, I found the mystery aspect of this novel to be fairly middle of the road. It is a fairly slow narrative and I didn't find the resolution to be that shockin; however, I loved all of these characters. Andy was such an interesting character to follow and I loved his journey throughout this book. From where he starts to his reaction upon learning about the family in Lavender House to where he ends up, it was such an evolution and the ending sort of sets up for potential sequels and I would love to see more of him and some potential cameos of characters from this book.
I also really loved the thematic unpacking of queerness in this book. Throughout the book we see Andy grappling with how to move on from his traumatic outing and we see how the residents of Lavender House feel about their situations (living openly queer at home but still needing to hide outside) and we see how Andy reacts to their lives. This story does not shy away from the homophobia and violence of the time period and it asks some interesting questions about queernesss in that era and I really hope we get to see more of it.
I also loved the audio narration. Vikas Adam is one of my favorite narrators and I thought he really brought to life the gritty noir detective feeling without being too over the top.
It feels weird saying that this was a fun book because it is a murder mystery and it deals with some very heavy themes, but I did really enjoy it.
Lavender House is a queer historical murder mystery, set in 1952 San Francisco following Evander Mills who until recently had been a detective with the SFPD but was fired and evicted when he was caught in a raid on a gay bar and outed.
Personally, I found the mystery aspect of this novel to be fairly middle of the road. It is a fairly slow narrative and I didn't find the resolution to be that shockin; however, I loved all of these characters. Andy was such an interesting character to follow and I loved his journey throughout this book. From where he starts to his reaction upon learning about the family in Lavender House to where he ends up, it was such an evolution and the ending sort of sets up for potential sequels and I would love to see more of him and some potential cameos of characters from this book.
I also really loved the thematic unpacking of queerness in this book. Throughout the book we see Andy grappling with how to move on from his traumatic outing and we see how the residents of Lavender House feel about their situations (living openly queer at home but still needing to hide outside) and we see how Andy reacts to their lives. This story does not shy away from the homophobia and violence of the time period and it asks some interesting questions about queernesss in that era and I really hope we get to see more of it.
I also loved the audio narration. Vikas Adam is one of my favorite narrators and I thought he really brought to life the gritty noir detective feeling without being too over the top.