Mackenzie LeGault is an assassin hunting her target in Mexico.
Cori Evans is a student at the University in Guadalajara. One fateful afternoon
their lives will come together and they will soon learn that they can not live
without each other.
Sometime soon a lesbian novel is going to make the crossover to
mainstream publishing and perhaps onto the movie screen. It will
be
one that, despite the fact that it features a lesbian romance, will
be encased in a story that is so compelling the audience cannot
ignore it and will be drawn to it despite the fact that the two lead
characters are both women. That story could very well be Facing
Evil
by CL Hart or one very much like it.
Facing Evil is a multi-layered mystery with tremendous suspense and
enough twists and turns to keep any mystery fan happy. Detective
Abby Stansfield has been trying to bring Billy Ward to trial for a
series of murders of young women and has just had the case thrown out
of court on a technicality. Abby loses control outside of the
courthouse and attacks Billy, which results in a long suspension from
the police department. She retreats to a mountain resort where she
hopes she will regain control of herself and restore balance to her
life. There is where she meets Sarah McMurphy, who is renting the
neighboring cabin, and they begin to develop a relationship.
Before
it can progress very far however, Abby is called back into town by
another murder. While she is investigating that, Billy goes
completely over the edge, and ends up
dead, and Abby finds herself on trial for killing him. As all of this unfolds,
there are separate mysteries about Sarah, Billy and especially Abby
that feed into the central plot. Unlike many mysteries, you will
not
see the answers coming until the last minute and, if you think you've
figured out some of the plot, hold on until you get through the next
page.
Hart has filled this book with a host of complex characters and
situations. Billy is not a run of the mill maniac and Abby has a
darkness to her that isn't normally associated with a hero. Sarah
hides her own secrets and stumbles blindly into a situation that
almost costs her life. One of the best parts of the book is to see
her character strengthen and grow as the story progresses. The
characters just flow from the pages and are so rich in character.
Among them is Abby's partner Lincoln, who is willing to sacrifice his
own career to save her life when Abby isn't. Abby's Uncle Nathan
carries her secrets with him and has to find a way to save her
without destroying the family. There are Helga and Gunter who run
the resort and provide quiet strength. However, rising above them
all is the wolf hybrid Buck, Abby's devoted companion, who will steal
your heart and make it wrench at one point in the book.
Hart uses a flashback technique very uniquely in this book. She
has
the prologue in the present and then Chapter 1 begins the flashback
to how the story started. Then, about half way through the book,
you're suddenly back where the prologue ended and the story goes on
from there. It creates an unusual effect, but works extremely well
the way it is used.
If lesbian literature is going to cross into the mainstream, it is
not going to be by one of the more formulaic books. The stories
that
feature two women meeting, falling in love and having passionate sex
are very appealing to the lesbian community and sell a lot of books,
but they aren't going to open the door to greater acceptance for the
genre. It will be books that feature stories that anyone can
relate
to and get lost in. The fact that two women love each other will
not
drive the story, but will be an important part of how the characters
relate to each other. What will open the doors for all of the
other
stories will be a book/movie where whoever reads or sees it
says, "Hey, that was a great story and did you notice that the two
women were in love?" Facing Evil could be that book.
Lynne
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support
me at the Burbank Xena convention and at Equal Writes. With your power
of product purchase, we sold out of our copies of Facing Evil - FRIDAY.
To all of those who did pre-orders, catch me at one of my next stops and
I would be thrilled to sign your copy.
I will be attending the Xena
Convention in Burbank Jan 14, 2006
I will be doing a signing and a reading at Equal
Writes in Long Beach California, Jan. 15th at 3:00 pm
*****
I will be at Heron's Bookstore and Cafe on
Sunday December
4th, 2005: from Noon to 5 pm
This is an open invitation for all those who
wanted to discuss Facing Evil, the wherefores and the whys that
twisted and turned Abby and Sarah's lives. It is also a great change
to get your copies for family and friends. Books make great
Christmas gifts. Hope to see you there.
~ ~ ~
To everyone who made it out to one of the release
parties
Thank You
Some of you may remember this
Me and my sister; she's in the yellow Facing Evil
shirt!
So what is next, well I'm flying over to Europe to
make sure everyone over there knows about Facing Evil. No, I'm not
kidding.
Then in January/February I'll be down touring
Southern California. Reading and Signing at selected bookstores and
at the Creation Convention in Burbank. So if you want me in a
bookstore in your area, drop me a line and we'll see what we can do.
