Lavender House

This was a great homage to the hard boiled detective genre. I adored the shout out to Johnny Dollar and flipping the femme fatale character on its head. Then they gave that character so much depth! I am so sad that this book is not marketed as an homage to the hard boiled detective genre. Without that background knowledge, there are so many wonderful details that get lost.
The mystery is good. The clues are good. The characters are all suspicious as they should be. Wonderful book!

TWs: Homomisia, slurs, hate crime/violence, animal death/hunting

4.5 rounded up

It's a queer novel surrounding a death in the Lavender House.. it was quite interesting! I enjoyed the queer/LGBTQ theme and the message behind exile, mistreatment, discrimination, etc. It's set in the 1950s but still quite relatable and feels modern. The pacing seemed just right, and it was a nice and short read but packed with messages and relatable feelings.