The Other Side of Silence by Joan M. Drury

The Other Side of Silence by Joan M. Drury
Spinsters Ink, 1993. 

Overview: Tyler Jones, a lesbian feminist journalist, takes her dog to the park by her house one morning to find the body of an abusive man hidden in the bushes. Well, her dog finds it, but it is Tyler who stands to be charged with murder! Using her connections as a journalist, Tyler works to prove her innocence. A warning: there are multiple detailed descriptions of domestic violence. While there have been other books that I have contemplated tagging with a warning, domestic violence is so central to the plot and to the protagonist's work (she is compiling a book of survivors' stories that is periodically excerpted) that I felt I would be truly remiss if I didn't in this case.

My reaction:  I was pretty sure that I'd be able to rate this one a "decent" until the last few pages. I won't spoil the ending in case you still want to read it for fun (because while it really annoyed me, the heading was kind of entertaining anyway), but it was absurd enough that I'm shaking my head writing this review. I'm tempted to read the next book in the series to see just how Tyler managed to clear her name with the police (and no, it's not obvious to anyone who thinks about it for a second how she was going to prove the truth with any real evidence), but I'll probably pass. This one definitely takes the cake for both the Most Unsympathetic Murder Victim, Weirdest Domestic Violence Organization Acronym (W.I.N.K.), and Bizarre Mystery Solution, though.