End of April by Penny Sumner

End of April by Penny Sumner.

The Naiad Press, 1992.

Overview: Archivist/private detective Victoria  “Tor” Cross returns to England after a stint in New York City, where she is drawn into a mystery involving threatening notes to her new lover, potentially illicit activities in the backroom of a controversial sex shop, and eventually a murder.

My reaction: This is definitely a light read, but by the time I got to the end I felt it was a bit too light. While I enjoyed the fact that nearly all the recurring characters were lesbians (including Tor’s awesome Oxford don of a great-aunt!) I was constantly wondering about threads that were apparently dropped, and sometimes got irritated by Tor’s inability to really focus on getting to the bottom of the threats to her new lover (unless it meant an excuse to not leave her alone for ten days, most hours of which were covered by her). Tor blames her inefficiency on lust multiple times, but while I was happy that she found an awesome new relationship, the fact remains that it’s a novel that relies on the vague feeling that there is a threat to the characters you still want to root for, and not on a really solid investigation/mystery. Even the conclusion was a bit unsatisfying! However, if you are looking for a light read (should take no more than a few hours), and don’t mind a host of shortcomings to read about a LESBIAN PRIVATE DETECTIVE in ENGLAND (full disclosure—I was mostly okay with that), then give it a shot! I think I’ll give the second book a fair shake in hopes that Tor will get her act together once she’s not investigating a threat to her new girlfriend!