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Under the Mink
Devotees of the lesbian pulp romances of the '50s and '60s will want to sink into this smoky noir thriller set in Greenwich Village in the years just after World War II. Blackie Cole is a tuxedo-wearing butch whose soulful singing at the Candy Box, a Mafia-run nightclub, attracts a host of swooning regulars, as well as a lively mix of uptown types, from successful, secretly kiki actresses to rich gay men to straight couples out for a peep at the queers. None know that it's Blackie's bad luck in love that makes her songs so powerful. Her beautiful, hard-drinking lover, Renee, a stripper, has just moved out of Blackie's apartment and into an upscale brothel run by the nefarious Lucille. But between the mob on one side and the cops on the other, Blackie has more to worry about than her aching heart--especially when she stumbles on a corpse in the men's room of the Candy Box. The faults of this plucky first novel are simply the faults of the genre that it mimics: stock characters and overheated prose. But Blackie and her immediate circle are well drawn, and her dilemma is satisfyingly resolved.--Regina Marler
290 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
About the author
Lisa E. Davis
6 books7 followersLisa E. Davis has lived in Greenwich Village for many years and loves to write about it. "Under The Mink" is her first novel. For the world of "Under the Mink" see her essay "The Butch as Drag Artiste: Greenwich Village in the Roaring Forties" in Joan Nestle's "The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader." Also visit the book website: http://www.underthemink.com
With a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Davis taught in the State and City University systems of New York, and frequently publish translations from Spanish-most recently in the Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction.
Lisa E. Davis' fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, Sister & Brother: Lesbians and Gay Men Write About Their Lives together, Queer View Mirror 2, New York Sex, Early Embraces II, Set in Stone, A Woman's Touch, Best Lesbian Love Stories, 2004, and Ultimate Lesbian Erotica, 2005.
Other high points in her life include meeting Fidel Castro and almost drowning in the Colorado River.
With a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Davis taught in the State and City University systems of New York, and frequently publish translations from Spanish-most recently in the Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction.
Lisa E. Davis' fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, Sister & Brother: Lesbians and Gay Men Write About Their Lives together, Queer View Mirror 2, New York Sex, Early Embraces II, Set in Stone, A Woman's Touch, Best Lesbian Love Stories, 2004, and Ultimate Lesbian Erotica, 2005.
Other high points in her life include meeting Fidel Castro and almost drowning in the Colorado River.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 23, 2017
“She was a real stand-up kind of broad, the kind you want on your side in a fair fight. Kelly could only wonder how Blackie did it. She had gorgeous dames coming out of the woodwork.”
Initially i resisted this. Eh. But once i allowed myself to slip into the late night B movie rhythm, the vernacular like “ugly mug” and “gorgeous dish” written as a fine Lesbian noir set in 1949, i began to enjoy the ride.
The plot is clever with several surprising twists; some grisly, not made-for-LifetimeTV, moments & endings i didn't want (if i ran the world) to conclude. But justice is mostly fantasy and hell, babe, life's a bitch and then you die. This is noir, suck it up - or get your pretty face outta here.
“Still better to be Spanish than mannish”
“....framed by the hall’s mildewed wallpaper.. In her little black dress, dark glasses, and ropes of real pearls, she looked like the Hope Diamond left in a hock shop.”
“Blackie didn’t mind sticking her neck out for a dame in distress. It was second nature.”
“Oh, everybody gets back to the Candy Box sooner or later.”
p.s. Lisa Davis has a PhD in comparative literature. Just saying.
Initially i resisted this. Eh. But once i allowed myself to slip into the late night B movie rhythm, the vernacular like “ugly mug” and “gorgeous dish” written as a fine Lesbian noir set in 1949, i began to enjoy the ride.
The plot is clever with several surprising twists; some grisly, not made-for-LifetimeTV, moments & endings i didn't want (if i ran the world) to conclude. But justice is mostly fantasy and hell, babe, life's a bitch and then you die. This is noir, suck it up - or get your pretty face outta here.
“Still better to be Spanish than mannish”
“....framed by the hall’s mildewed wallpaper.. In her little black dress, dark glasses, and ropes of real pearls, she looked like the Hope Diamond left in a hock shop.”
“Blackie didn’t mind sticking her neck out for a dame in distress. It was second nature.”
“Oh, everybody gets back to the Candy Box sooner or later.”
p.s. Lisa Davis has a PhD in comparative literature. Just saying.
October 9, 2015
I was led to believe that this was about butch lesbians acting as enforcers for the New York City mob scene (which really happened!), but instead it was a kind of mealy little slice into the city's underground queer club life in the 1940s. Which could have still been sexy, or interesting, or gripping, but instead was just kind of....boring. Davis seemed to put more energy into the costume descriptions than in any kind of plot or character development, though I always enjoy reading books in which We're All Queer Here, darling. Still a pass, though.
August 20, 2015
Reading books is kind of like my third date policy. There comes a point where you shouldn't be convincing yourself you enjoy it. You try it, you try it some more to give it another chance, you try on last time... but ultimately it's something you just don't really like.
The premise of this book is very cool, but the writing is a little clunky. And the historical references and slang can be heavy handed. So much use of "dame."
The premise of this book is very cool, but the writing is a little clunky. And the historical references and slang can be heavy handed. So much use of "dame."
January 17, 2018
Under the Mink is a great premise, but it never came together for me. It's not humid and over-heated like a Megan Abbott novel, so it just comes off as affected. It's not ambitious in the way Sarah Waters novels are, so it seems shallow. It decides about halfway through that it's committed to the unhappy realities of a world of social imbalances . . . which is fine, and very noir, but it definitely started off like a novel aiming for campy fun and/or a reclamation of pulp fiction - so the shift was jarring and, ultimately, unearned. I like pastiche, but I'd like it to be rooted in something. This just felt rote, including the "period" slang.
Actually, what I think sunk this one for me was that it's set in 1949 but it feels like it's about 1935. Something about it made me think, "Why are they talking about World War II, that hasn't happened yet" literally every time WWII came up. Hard to get over that feeling of something not being right.
Actually, what I think sunk this one for me was that it's set in 1949 but it feels like it's about 1935. Something about it made me think, "Why are they talking about World War II, that hasn't happened yet" literally every time WWII came up. Hard to get over that feeling of something not being right.
July 23, 2019
I guess it would be 2.5 Quite fun read, but just so surface-y...wanted a little more, somehow.
March 21, 2023
Pleasant fun read. Although fiction and a bit campy, it did give a good account of what queer nightclubs may have been like in the pre-Stonewall era.
April 29, 2026
In 1949 New York City, Blackie Cole, dressed in an immaculate tux and tie, and with her short hair slicked back, is a popular chanteuse at a nightclub that features musical acts by cross dressers of both sexes. Her popularity and career are going great guns until she finds a dead body in the restroom and glimpses the killer as he runs from the scene.
The nightclub is owned and managed by the mob. Blackie is a kid from the streets, so when her boss tells her to keep her mouth buttoned about ever having seen a stiff in the club, she takes the advice seriously. At the same time, Blackie meets the woman of her dreams—Didi Fletcher-Payne, whose father just happens to own the largest newspaper in the city. When Blackie finds out that Didi has a connection to the dead man, her loyalties are torn.
There is a lot of mobster talk in this book—more than a bit of blood and killing. Think of a cross between Hammett’s Red Harvest and Victor Victoria and think of Blackie as a younger and more realistic Victor. Expect to read lines like ”But you know, I gotta ask myself, whaduz a dame like that want with somebody like me,” and “ A night in the slammer oughta loosen your tongue, toots.”
But there is wisdom here too, and fine writing. “Risking your neck was one thing. Risking your heart, she’d have to think twice.” or “One thing Blackie had learned was that lies bound people together as the truth never would.” Throughout the book, Blackie has to teeter on a knife edge between gangsters on one side of her and a killer on the other.
And there is irony. One of the subplots involves politics. A get-tough-on-crime DA is running for mayor, basing his campaign on the assumption that graft, payoffs, organized crime, and homosexuality are inextricably intertwined. But because it seems that the mob owns all the establishments that will hire gay entertainers, Blackie’s bread is definitely buttered on the mob side of the slice. If the DA wins the mayoral race, Blackie is not only out of a job, but probably will go to jail as well—for “impersonating a man.”
The only really disturbing thing about this book is the indiscriminate point of view changes. I found three different points of view on a single page and two in a single paragraph. Points of view can be changed, of course, but not in a catch-as-catch-can manner. The author, with her education, should have known better, and her editor was paid to catch such blunders. Too bad.
That said, however, the book is exciting. I like Blackie—at least what I know of her, which isn’t enough—and her friends. Davis’ Bogartian dialogue and references to everyone from Ida Lupino to Pat O’Brien may be a little over the top, but as a child of the Silver Screen, it—and the archaic language—sounded authentic enough to me. And the fact that Davis is giving a tiny bit of history about a small segment of the queer population in the late forties gives it more weight than many other mysteries. That—along with the atypical ending—is a refreshing change from the ordinary, and although I can’t bring myself to give it quite four stars, it is very close. Call it 3.9.
I read the first Alyson printing of this novel.
Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 1250 other lesbian mysteries by over 400 authors.
The nightclub is owned and managed by the mob. Blackie is a kid from the streets, so when her boss tells her to keep her mouth buttoned about ever having seen a stiff in the club, she takes the advice seriously. At the same time, Blackie meets the woman of her dreams—Didi Fletcher-Payne, whose father just happens to own the largest newspaper in the city. When Blackie finds out that Didi has a connection to the dead man, her loyalties are torn.
There is a lot of mobster talk in this book—more than a bit of blood and killing. Think of a cross between Hammett’s Red Harvest and Victor Victoria and think of Blackie as a younger and more realistic Victor. Expect to read lines like ”But you know, I gotta ask myself, whaduz a dame like that want with somebody like me,” and “ A night in the slammer oughta loosen your tongue, toots.”
But there is wisdom here too, and fine writing. “Risking your neck was one thing. Risking your heart, she’d have to think twice.” or “One thing Blackie had learned was that lies bound people together as the truth never would.” Throughout the book, Blackie has to teeter on a knife edge between gangsters on one side of her and a killer on the other.
And there is irony. One of the subplots involves politics. A get-tough-on-crime DA is running for mayor, basing his campaign on the assumption that graft, payoffs, organized crime, and homosexuality are inextricably intertwined. But because it seems that the mob owns all the establishments that will hire gay entertainers, Blackie’s bread is definitely buttered on the mob side of the slice. If the DA wins the mayoral race, Blackie is not only out of a job, but probably will go to jail as well—for “impersonating a man.”
The only really disturbing thing about this book is the indiscriminate point of view changes. I found three different points of view on a single page and two in a single paragraph. Points of view can be changed, of course, but not in a catch-as-catch-can manner. The author, with her education, should have known better, and her editor was paid to catch such blunders. Too bad.
That said, however, the book is exciting. I like Blackie—at least what I know of her, which isn’t enough—and her friends. Davis’ Bogartian dialogue and references to everyone from Ida Lupino to Pat O’Brien may be a little over the top, but as a child of the Silver Screen, it—and the archaic language—sounded authentic enough to me. And the fact that Davis is giving a tiny bit of history about a small segment of the queer population in the late forties gives it more weight than many other mysteries. That—along with the atypical ending—is a refreshing change from the ordinary, and although I can’t bring myself to give it quite four stars, it is very close. Call it 3.9.
I read the first Alyson printing of this novel.
Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 1250 other lesbian mysteries by over 400 authors.
June 19, 2013
Fun very quick read.
The execution of the period setting was super heavy-handed, but in a silly sort of way that made it kinda campy.
All of the women in this book were presented with overwrought physical description usually accompanied by a note about their likeness to such-and-such celebrity of the time period.
Needs more girl on girl sex. A surprising amount of cock/dildos for a book with a lesbian protagonist.
No spoilers, but the ending is unsatisfying and sorta deus-ex-y.
The execution of the period setting was super heavy-handed, but in a silly sort of way that made it kinda campy.
All of the women in this book were presented with overwrought physical description usually accompanied by a note about their likeness to such-and-such celebrity of the time period.
Needs more girl on girl sex. A surprising amount of cock/dildos for a book with a lesbian protagonist.
No spoilers, but the ending is unsatisfying and sorta deus-ex-y.
July 22, 2007
a pleasant little period, butch/femme/mobster piece.
November 16, 2014
Hey..this was a good read! Sad twists..but hey..that's life! Love and dirt..there are no barriers.
Thankx Lisa E. Davis.
Thankx Lisa E. Davis.
October 5, 2015
Definitely an interesting setting - fun trashy novel, though not particularly well written and the ending was unsatisfying. Still worth the read!
Did Not Finish
February 24, 2016I may come back to this at a later point but since I started it in September and haven't made much progress, I'm putting it aside for now.
October 21, 2015
glimpse into the history of LGBTQ people in the 50's. Pleasant, not engrossing.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews