The Mortal Groove

Jane Lawless #15

by Ellen Hart

Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year the best way she knows how—with her family, friends, and some excellent champagne—when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up the party with a little backroom proposition for her father: How'd he like to be the state's next governor? Flattered, Ray Lawless, a retired defense attorney, agrees to run, and the latecomer's sprint to the state capital is going great until reporters and opponents start digging up the kind of dirt that is more valuable than gold out on the campaign trail. He and his family are fair game, but worse than that, so are the men running his campaign. Their secrets, involving the mysterious death of a young woman, have been buried since the summer they all came home from Vietnam. Unfortunately for Jane and her father, those secrets won't stay that way for long.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, LGBT, Lesbian, Crime, Cozy Mystery, Audiobook

Hardcover

First published December 10, 2007

About the author

Ellen Hart is the author of twenty-eight crime novels in two different series. She is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction, a three-time winner of the Golden Crown Literary Award in several categories, a recipient of the Alice B Medal, and was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans in 2005. In 2010, Ellen received the GCLS Trailblazer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of lesbian literature. For the past fourteen years, Ellen has taught "An Introduction to Writing the Modern Mystery" through the The Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation. Ellen's latest Sophie Greenway mystery is No Reservations Required (Ballantine). Rest for the Wicked, the twentieth Jane Lawless mystery, will be released by St. Martin's/Minotaur in October 2012. Bella Books has recently revived the out-of-print books by publishing them in both trade paperback and E-book. Ellen lives in the Minneapolis area with her partner of over 35 years.

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3. 5 stars. I like this series with Jane Lawless as the main character. Some of the books are really good, some are average reads. This one is somewhere in the middle. The story lines are filled with difficult subjects i.e., Vietnam War Vets with secrets, political machinations surrounding Ray Lawless, brother Peter with an outrageous and illegal scheme to save his marriage by finding a child his wife had given up for adoption, kidnapping and Jane and Cordelia, each with their own looming heartaches. Much angst, little resolution at the end and hanging solutions. A dark story for sure. Regardless, I enjoy Ellen Hart's ability to tell a story and to weave a good mystery. I am hoping there is more resolution in the next in the series.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the darkest in Hart's Lawless series. Quite gripping. But dark. Definitely dark. Explores the connections between the Vietnam War and violence in American culture, then and today. A meditation on how veterans of wars are influenced by the violence they take part in. Also an exploration of how anyone can be violent, given an extreme situation. That's the darkest part of the book--a character you don't expect ever to be violent suddenly commits a very violent act because of extreme circumstances... and the experience seems to have changed the character profoundly and perhaps forever. As I said, it's dark stuff--and very well written.

[Yahli Rot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsatisfactory ending.
I didn't like Peter to begin with, and this book made me like him even less. I especially don't understand why they couldn't call the police at the end, it seemed stupid, pointless and reckless. Also, Peter needs some serious therapy and I don't think he should be a parent, especially for a disabled foster kid. He's not ready or mentally well enough, not to mention his relationship status and current job or the lies and promises. He doesn't know what he's doing.
Cordelia is still the best character in this series!!

I love the kids in this series, and it's still a good mystery. Just not as great as the rest.

[Jane Mylrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really surprisingly enjoyed this mystery. Set in Twin Cities, lesbian sleuth, with so many fun overtones-her dad runs for governor, Vietnam war story, ptsd, coma, Iowa small town, etc
Can get a bit silly, not sure about Cordelia(too much)

[Misha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ellen Hart. Always a good read. My favorite line in this book is when Cordelia said, "Hey, maybe I'll have to borrow that last one." Made me laugh out loud and read it to my wife. You will understand when you read the sentence just before it!

[Sarah Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dang, the moral ambiguity and the unexpected character growth really stood out in this one.

Vietnam vets - 3 brothers in arms - 30 years later. One dead woman, thirty years ago. A body in a trunk. A missing child. Two kidnappings.

Kenzi is still around, but no mention of Julia.

[Bridget · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started in an interesting way,and had my interest for a while. But a little more than halfway through, I gotbored and antsy reading it. I wanted to know what happened in the end, but only skimmed to find out. And even then it was underwhelming.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book with wonderful characters.

[Tink]

15 down.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read though dark at times

[Kathleen Hagen]

The Mortal Groove, by Ellen Hart, a-minus, Narrated by Aimee Jolson, Produced by Audible Inc., downloaded from audible.com.

Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year the best way she knows how - with her family, friends,
and some excellent champagne - when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up the party with a little backroom proposition for her father:

How'd he like to be the state's next governor? Flattered, Ray Lawless, a retired defense attorney, agrees to run, and the latecomer's sprint to the state
capital is going great until reporters and opponents start digging up the kind of dirt that is more valuable than gold out on the campaign trail. He and
his family are fair game, but worse than that, so are the men running his campaign. Their secrets, involving the mysterious death of a young woman, have
been buried since the summer they all came home from Vietnam, 1971. Unfortunately for Jane and her father, those secrets won't stay that way for long. And Jane’s family is in danger due to these secrets as well. Also, Peter and Sigrid’s marriage is falling apart due to the fact that Peter wants children and Sigrid doesn’t. Peter has taken it upon himself to track down the daughter Sigrid put up for adoption when she was 17, and in rescuing this little girl, he has increased the problems between himself and Sigrid. Very good.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter’s marriage to Sigrid is in trouble – from Peter’s end, because he wants children and she doesn’t, after having given up a child for adoption when she was eighteen. And Sigrid just plain wants more. She’s ambitious in her career, wants to further her education, and doesn’t share Peter’s dream of the cottage with the white picket fence. Peter goes searching for Sigrid’s child, finds that she is definitely not in a happily ever after adoption, and literally snatches her off the street as she is returning from school to her seedy foster home. Mia is deaf, and her adoptive parents rejected this less-than-perfect specimen. Peter falls in love with her and vows that he and Sigrid will raise her. Meanwhile, Cordelia is in first mourning over Hattie’s return to her mother, which has turned hostile as Octavia blames Cordelia for making Hattie “weird”. Cordelia is getting her information these days from private investigators in England. The first seeds of Jane and Kenzie’s eventual breakup are sown in this book as well, as Kenzie, like Peter, wants the settled home life, while Jane is thriving with her many irons in the fire lifestyle. Oh, and yeah, there’s a mystery here, involving some Vietnam vets who, despite their very different lives, are brothers to the end, and who are also keeping a secret about the murder of a young girl. The mystery, again, isn’t really the point here, but a vehicle to watch the lives of Jane and company, which interests me more, anyhow

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot Summary: Jane Lawless is a Minnesota restaurateur who maintains very close relationships with her friends and her family. In this book of the series, Jane’s father is running for governor, and family secrets, as well as the secrets of those involved in his campaign threaten the campaign’s success, as well as the personal well-being of many of the characters. Many of the characters in this book have secrets, the least of which is their sexuality. Jane and her sidekick Cordelia investigate the people working with her father after the assault of one of their friends. This takes them all of the way back to a murder around the time of the Vietnam war. Jane’s investigation results in the kidnapping of her brother and she takes it upon herself to try to save him. In the meantime, Cordelia is trying to regain custody of her niece, and Jane’s brother is trying to save his marriage by searching for his wives’ baby, given up for adoption at birth. This multi-layered story offers resolution of most story lines at the end of the book, while creating new issues, perhaps to be resolved in the next book.


Appeal: memorable, suspenseful, fast-paced, entertaining, multi-layered, secretive, witty, strong secondary characters, family-centered, thoughtful, bittersweet, elegant

3 appeal terms that best describe this book: well-developed characters, subtle, engaging

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my god, this book was so bad. The previous couple of books, I was disappointed. But now, I'm disgusted. I mean, seriously? Jane's brother Peter decides to hunt down his estranged wife Sigrid's daughter she gave up for adoption (but not tell her he was doing it), then kidnap her and bring her back, which magically reunites Peter and Sigrid as a couple and makes her change her mind about divorcing Peter. Not to mention the fact that Peter gets kidnapped. That whole sequence was surreal. Ms. Hart wrote him as a complete wimp, so un-masculine that he doesn't know what the phrase "drop and give me twenty" means. Come on, Ellen! Peter's male, right? He went through gym class, right? He's seen movies, right? Why did you make him be such a cartoonish figure?
I have three more Hart books to get through, and I'm dreading it.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that Cordelia finally gets a partner in this one: I also love the development of Hattie and then Mia and Cordelia's interactions with them.

I'm worried, though, both about Peter, and about Jane/Kenzie. As much as I loved and adored Kenzie for driving all day to apologise for hurting Jane (*and* I loved the sort of pseudo proposal), Jane was just so uncertain... and I want to know more about that.

I'm assuming that the next book will have more about Raymond's tilt at the governorship, and about Jane/Kenzie.

And none of this has said anything about the actual plot, but with the Ellen Hart books, it's become so very much more about how much I love these characters.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had trouble with this latest installment in the Jane Lawless series - grim, verging on a real downer; even Cordelia's flambouyancy didn't lift things much. I'm still a fan of the series, but wouldn't blame others for not being able to finish this one.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

After 20 or so Ellen Hart mysteries, you pretty much know what to expect. What I did especially like was some more movement and character development for Peter and his family. An engrossing read, that had a few twists and turns.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What stops this from getting 5 stars is the open=-ended story lines: How did Ethan end up next to the victim? What happened with Siggy and Peter and Mia? A few too many story lines that weren't fully developed and probably should have been a separate book.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's great to be with Jane and Cordelia again ...it's been too long! This seemed darker than others due to the close connection of some events to Jane and family. I'll start the next one very soon as the election cycle continues in it.

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast read (in less than 2 hours). Fun book. True to the characters, though Ellen Hart does drag some story parts our. Very much a series write.
Not her best, but still fun to read.

[Mary Vermillion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane's father runs for governor in this book, and there is also a fascinating look at the lives of Viet Nam vets. The ending is fantastic.

[Kelly Jo]

this is my new favorite author.