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Lauren Laurano #4
Let's Face The Music And Die
Witty, hip, pretty, and gay, Lauren Laurano isn't your typical private detective. She shares an apartment with Kip, her longtime lover, in New York's Greenwich Village, where they are surrounded by a close-knit group of friends. But Lauren and Kip's relationship has hit a rough patch, and when Kip goes out of town for a month-long conference, Lauren's life gets complicated by a new case, a new love interest, and a menace from her past. Lauren's friend Elissa is in trouble. Her elderly aunt has been found brutally stabbed to death, and much to Elissa's dismay, the police suspect she's the killer. Elissa's situation looks dire: she's without an alibi and in line to inherit a large sum of money. Undaunted, Lauren takes the case, using her unique combination of street-savvy detecting and electronic know-how to find the real killer. Tapping into the Internet for clues, Lauren gets more than she bargained for. First on-line, then in person, she meets Alex, a young woman to whom she is powerfully attracted. As the investigation grows more complex, Lauren becomes more and more distracted by thoughts of Alex and guilt about Kip. And just as Lauren thinks she has her hands full, one of her dearest friends is hospitalized and Lauren begins receiving death threats herself.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
12 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Sandra Scoppettone
53 books77 followersAlso wrote as Jack Early.
Sandra Scoppettone first emerged as one of the best hard-boiled mystery writers using the name Jack Early for her first three novels that included A Creative Kind of Killer (1984) that won the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America for best first novel. She had started writing seriously since the age of 18 when she moved to New York from South Orange, New Jersey. Scoppettone in the 1960s collaborated with Louise Fitzhuh and in the 1970s wrote important young adult novels. The Late Great Me depicting teenage alcoholism won an Emmy Award in 1976. Her real name was revealed in the 1990s with the start of a series featuring PI Lauren Laurano. Scoppettone shares her life with writer Linda Crawford.
Sandra Scoppettone first emerged as one of the best hard-boiled mystery writers using the name Jack Early for her first three novels that included A Creative Kind of Killer (1984) that won the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America for best first novel. She had started writing seriously since the age of 18 when she moved to New York from South Orange, New Jersey. Scoppettone in the 1960s collaborated with Louise Fitzhuh and in the 1970s wrote important young adult novels. The Late Great Me depicting teenage alcoholism won an Emmy Award in 1976. Her real name was revealed in the 1990s with the start of a series featuring PI Lauren Laurano. Scoppettone shares her life with writer Linda Crawford.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 13, 2020
Page 13 and Kip announces that she is going away for a month.
I can smell the cheating already fam.
Note:
One of the things I hate the most in this series is that the protagonist often uses irony to get over emotional crises but she does not let other characters be ironic when they emotionally need it, such as on page 19:
"It's not catching," he says sarcastically.
[...]
"Are you very upset?"
" You could call it devastated ... but I wouldn't. I suppose I should be. Strange that I'm not."
"What are you then?"
"As in animal, vegetable, or mineral?"
"Stop it." He does this when he doesn't want to deal with things.
"Let's see. If I'm not devastated, then I must be something else. Should we name all the things I could be?"
"Why are you acting like this?"
He's acting like this because he is a coke addict and lied about it to his lover and his lover couldn't cope with it and left him. Have a heart Lauren, and stop hounding every character like they're in a Confession booth.
Another thing that baffles me is that the author successfully managed to share one of her protagonist's verbal quirks to a wide variety of secondary characters without being edited out. Like "Continue. Shminie" or "See. Shmee." This is a verbal quirk that is first introduced by the protagonist and later found in teenagers a state over as well as New Yorker geriatrics, of any class or cultural background. It is beyond suspension of disbelief.
I can smell the cheating already fam.
Note:
One of the things I hate the most in this series is that the protagonist often uses irony to get over emotional crises but she does not let other characters be ironic when they emotionally need it, such as on page 19:
"It's not catching," he says sarcastically.
[...]
"Are you very upset?"
" You could call it devastated ... but I wouldn't. I suppose I should be. Strange that I'm not."
"What are you then?"
"As in animal, vegetable, or mineral?"
"Stop it." He does this when he doesn't want to deal with things.
"Let's see. If I'm not devastated, then I must be something else. Should we name all the things I could be?"
"Why are you acting like this?"
He's acting like this because he is a coke addict and lied about it to his lover and his lover couldn't cope with it and left him. Have a heart Lauren, and stop hounding every character like they're in a Confession booth.
Another thing that baffles me is that the author successfully managed to share one of her protagonist's verbal quirks to a wide variety of secondary characters without being edited out. Like "Continue. Shminie" or "See. Shmee." This is a verbal quirk that is first introduced by the protagonist and later found in teenagers a state over as well as New Yorker geriatrics, of any class or cultural background. It is beyond suspension of disbelief.
June 7, 2017
LBGA
February 21, 2025
dissertation reading, #10
oh lauren laurano i love you so dearly, even though your morals are tested in this book! out of the entire series, this book made me feel the most - annoyance sometimes, frustration, and pure fear - and i was completely hooked until the last page. i loved it, and i’m so sad that there’s only one book left in the series for me to read!
oh lauren laurano i love you so dearly, even though your morals are tested in this book! out of the entire series, this book made me feel the most - annoyance sometimes, frustration, and pure fear - and i was completely hooked until the last page. i loved it, and i’m so sad that there’s only one book left in the series for me to read!
September 2, 2011
I appreciated the relationship stuff going on in this book. It isn't your stereotypical beginning or ending of a relationship (although there were threads of both), but rather the hard part, the part that isn't always easy or pretty, but the day-to-day living of life in a relationship.
January 12, 2013
This is my favorite of the 5 in this series. The relationship between Lauren and Kip is so realistic - amazing dialogues and the usual Laurano wit while solving her case with its twists and turns. Great New York scenes and compelling characters and plot.
February 26, 2018
Oh, damn, oh, damn, oh damn...I was not happy with the cliffhanger at the end of this one!!!! (truth be told I only like a cliffhanger if I already have the next book, which I don't!) There is so much packed into this juicy mystery!
November 16, 2022
Well, I knew the momentum of the last book couldn't last. Not only was the mystery lackluster and predictable (it felt like it was taking second fiddle to the protagonists story, which I wouldn't mind as much if it were, y'know...good) and also I HATE THE PROTAGONIST IN THIS BOOK SO MUCH! No wonder her relationship is falling apart! She's extremely self centered, she barely communicates about anything, and OF COURSE YOUR PARTNER IS DISTANT WHEN THEY'RE GRIEVING A FAMILY MEMBER WHO DIED FROM FUCKING AIDS! AND THEN YOU CHEAT ON HER! And then you lie to her about it through the entire book, even when she asks you point blank! AND YOU DON'T TELL HER YOU'RE BEING STALKED EVEN WHEN THE GUY IS LITERALLY IN YOUR GODDAMN HOUSE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
ALSO FUCK YOU, SERIAL MOM RULES
ALSO FUCK YOU, SERIAL MOM RULES
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2020
3.5
This is the latest in the Lauren Laurano mystery. The mystery was good, (and included her infatuation with computers) but what was especially interesting was her personal life—she’s having difficulty with her partner, Kip and while Kip’s away, she also finds herself drawn into a relationship with a younger woman. The ending was a real cliffhanger in that regard.
2020 note: I need to reread this series.
This is the latest in the Lauren Laurano mystery. The mystery was good, (and included her infatuation with computers) but what was especially interesting was her personal life—she’s having difficulty with her partner, Kip and while Kip’s away, she also finds herself drawn into a relationship with a younger woman. The ending was a real cliffhanger in that regard.
2020 note: I need to reread this series.
November 25, 2023
I love the Lauren Laurano mystery series, and this one does not disappoint. Lauren has been with her therapist partner for several years, and they are in a rough patch. Laurano has another mystery to solve, her police partner becomes out of commission, she's being stalked by the man who raped her many years ago and is now out of prison, and she meets another woman online. Oh oh.
August 3, 2020
An enjoyable if dated read, especially if you enjoy mysteries that are a bit campy and somewhat predictable. That being said the book is anything but boring, I would definitely recommend as a fun read
July 26, 2017
Another fun, suspenseful book in the Lauren Laurano P.I series.
It's definitlely a pity there's only one more written after this.
It's definitlely a pity there's only one more written after this.
August 1, 2019
I liked this one a lot. Sandra Scoppettone's detective Lauren Laurano is a fun read.
April 9, 2020
Must have forgotten that I had read it earlier in the year!
tried-but-no
May 5, 2022Stopped, a couple of story lines just not my taste.
July 19, 2025
I was completely caught unaware by the final three paragraphs. That alone makes me need to know more about this universe - but I will have to wait a while and read the first book in the series.
August 7, 2014
This book had me on edge from the moment Alex was introduced! I think I was more interested in Mrs Laurano's affair then the case at hand. A very attachable book I didn't want to put down
November 2, 2015
Among the very best of lesbian mystery series! And compelling relationship complications.
December 28, 2020
What fun reading a book set thirty years ago. A lesbian couple, really slow computers, dial up modems. Being sixty, I remember this time. Amazing any crimes were solved back then.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews