Ladies' Night

by Bowers

Information provided by Salal, a drug-addicted teenage prostitute, compels private investigator Meg Lacy to probe the activities of Danny Haswell, whose nightclub "Kinky's" is a front for a kiddie-porn movie studio

Genres: Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Mystery

238 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

Reviews

[Megan]

Teenage girls are disappearing in the Vancouver area. Coincidentally, private investigator Meg Lacey is hired to locate two of them. Although one turns up dead of a drug overdose, Meg is convinced that the other has simply moved out of her parents’ home to find a new life away from them and her fiancé, who turns out to be a low-life. But after interviewing said fiancé and several of the girl’s friends and relatives, Meg is not so sure.

One of the motifs that separates this novel from other lesbian PI novels is the fact that Meg—when the book starts—is a divorced mother of two teenagers with an on-again, off-again boyfriend named Tom.

The book reminds me somewhat of Andrew Vachss, at least in terms of the subject matter: kiddie porn and abuse, so it’s not for everyone.

I can find no evidence that Meg is a lesbian. It seems that I finished this book without reviewing it, possibly because of that reason. However, Meg Lacey is listed in Wikipedia as a Lesbian Mystery protagonist. Possibly she becomes lesbian in book 2

Final Rating: Because I decided that Meg was straight, I failed to review it in its entirety after I had finished. Now, years later, I simply do not remember enough about it to give it a rating.
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.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Vancouver in the late 80s - a well done, contemporary mystery with great characters and setting. A good-hearted lesbian hooker and her very proper legal secretary lover, a private investigator without a whole lot of resources and the underground porn film industry, clubs and drugs.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll give her credit for a unique ending, but otherwise it was pretty terrible

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a very 1980s-style social issues mystery, of the type that Barbara Wilson, Mary Wings, Sara Paretsky and others handled better. It's well-written, with an interesting setup but the characters, apart from the protagonist, never really light up the stage.

[Clare · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept waiting for this book to get better but alas it did not. Very disappointing.