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I Knew You Would Call: A Marta Goicochea Mystery
Marta, calls on the spirits to help an abused friend accused of murder. Humorously yet honestly confronts the issues of incest survival, abusive lesbian relationships, and child custody, as well as presenting a truly enjoyable cast of characters.
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1995
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June 19, 2020We can always count on Kate Allen to take us through some of the seamier sides of dykedom. For instance, Marta Goicochea (of Basque heritage and originally from Idaho) spends most of her time curled up on her untidy couch watching crappy TV and pining the lost Teri—who has dumped her unceremoniously and gotten a new squeeze six months before. In Marta’s typical way of using humor to temper serious subjects, she thinks, “Nothing mattered. Nothing had mattered for six months, but today nothing mattered more than it ever had before.” The thing is, she is luckier than most of her friends, including her cousin and best friend Mary Clare and Marta’s budding love interest Polly, both of whom were abused by family members.
She is also luckier than Karen, a young dyke who calls Marta’s hotline to talk about her abusive lover. Especially when Karen is found dead a couple of days later and Marta’s friend Polly is arrested for the murder. And with good reason: Polly is found at the scene of the crime holding the murder weapon.
I Knew You Would Call is a tough, gritty book that might even be called “lesbian realism.” The despondency Marta feels over losing Teri parallels the feelings of just about every character in the book at one time or another. It also delves deeply into the lesser-written-about subjects of abusive lesbian relationships and incest survival. But despite all this depression, what really comes out of this book is the idea of community—groups of women in similar situations that come to each other’s aid no matter how badly they might be screwed up themselves. And with the help of Mary Clare and her odd friends Louann, G-Hey!, and even Allison Kaine herself, Marta tracks down exactly what happened the night that the luckless Karen was murdered.
Yes, Marta seems to have some ability as a psychic, but it is generally faint and always erratic. She calls it “the shine.” At a crucial point in the book, she thinks that she only has “enough of the shine to be able to answer the phone before the first ring, and that was a party trick”, and in fact, Marta solves this engrossing mystery with her intelligence, not her psychic ability, although it sometimes confirms her in her findings. One of the things I was confirmed in was my liking for Kate Allen’s writing. Tell Me What You Like was no means a fluke. Give I Knew You Would Call a 4 plus and hope that Allen comes out of her 17-year hiatus to give us at least one more Marta Goicochea novel.
Note: I read the first New Victoria Press printing of this book.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
She is also luckier than Karen, a young dyke who calls Marta’s hotline to talk about her abusive lover. Especially when Karen is found dead a couple of days later and Marta’s friend Polly is arrested for the murder. And with good reason: Polly is found at the scene of the crime holding the murder weapon.
I Knew You Would Call is a tough, gritty book that might even be called “lesbian realism.” The despondency Marta feels over losing Teri parallels the feelings of just about every character in the book at one time or another. It also delves deeply into the lesser-written-about subjects of abusive lesbian relationships and incest survival. But despite all this depression, what really comes out of this book is the idea of community—groups of women in similar situations that come to each other’s aid no matter how badly they might be screwed up themselves. And with the help of Mary Clare and her odd friends Louann, G-Hey!, and even Allison Kaine herself, Marta tracks down exactly what happened the night that the luckless Karen was murdered.
Yes, Marta seems to have some ability as a psychic, but it is generally faint and always erratic. She calls it “the shine.” At a crucial point in the book, she thinks that she only has “enough of the shine to be able to answer the phone before the first ring, and that was a party trick”, and in fact, Marta solves this engrossing mystery with her intelligence, not her psychic ability, although it sometimes confirms her in her findings. One of the things I was confirmed in was my liking for Kate Allen’s writing. Tell Me What You Like was no means a fluke. Give I Knew You Would Call a 4 plus and hope that Allen comes out of her 17-year hiatus to give us at least one more Marta Goicochea novel.
Note: I read the first New Victoria Press printing of this book.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
July 12, 2024
The low rating isn't necessarily for the story, although it is very dated now (clearly set in the 1990s). It deals with some important topics, like incest and same-sex spousal abuse, but the murder and mystery are a bit far-fetched and resolved too quickly. No, my biggest issue is that the editing and proofreading are both simply dreadful. The main characters are Star Trek: The Next Generation fans (and the show seems to be on TV whenever the characters feel like watching it), but character names from Riker to Geordi La Forge are mangled, as well as terms like "Ferengi." There are a lot of basic typos as well (word repetitions, for example). I am okay with a couple of errors, but when the book has so many issues, it tends to take me out of the story.
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