Divine Victim

by Mary Wings

The narrator's lesbian lover, Marya, inherits a large, eerie Montana home, and the two women find a house full of unsolved mysteries. By the author of She Came Too Late.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Queer, Lesbian Fiction, Crime

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

In 1973 Mary Wings made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian underground comic book. She may be best known for her series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor. Divine Victim, Wings' only Gothic novel, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery in 1993

Reviews

[Hannah Showalter]

this was truly a wild ride. i was really drawn in by the “rebecca” comparisons, because there’s nothing i love more than a weird, spooky house. but it became less about the spooky house and more about homophobia and catholicism, which was fine i guess. the plot felt a little all over the place to me in the end, but it was interesting to read lesbian fiction from the 90s!

[Schuyler L'Roux]

An interesting read that did an incredible job discussing and relating the often obtuse worlds of religion and art. And yet the overall story left me dissatisfied. The twist was fun but I wanted more.

[Véro]

The ending left me...neutral. Honestly, the main character and the storyline itself weren't as developed as I would have wanted... interesting read though, I wanted to know what was happening.

[Wayne Spiceland]

Okay, folks, I know this was a Lambda winner for best mystery, but the rest of that year's finalists seemed weak, too, IMNSHO. Wish I knew what the other submissions were. Anyway, 3 stars simply because the writing itself is very good, often evocative and moving, and the plot is, well, okay. But, ultimately, I think, it fails, at least in my mind, because not a single one of the characters is even remotely likable, especially the narrator. Well, Marya, maybe, but again, only remotely. Yeah, 3 stars is s'posed to mean "I liked it" but, here, it think "I admired it" is closer to the mark, admired the writing, anyway, and the passages about art. Otherwise, not so much.

[Nicole Dykeman]

DNF’d, because my Queer Detectives professor can’t make up her mind about what we are gonna read in class for some reason. I literally read more than half of this though, so I’m counting it. And it’s telling that I don’t have any desire to finish it even when I have the option to.