4.5 rounded up. Although "Lavender House" might be a touch easy to solve for anyone who has read a few Agatha Christies, it is an entertaining, well-written mystery with a delightful little cast and a fun setting! I hope Rosen writes more like this in the future; it's a great balance of suspense and character development, and made for a solid autumn weekend read. The world needs more queer mysteries like this! ( )

Did not like any part of this book. Would not recommend to any one

This is a murder mystery whodunit, in the Agatha Christie style. It's a good read on that basis. What makes it different is that the suspects are gay, and live together in a family mansion outside of San Francisco in the early 1950's. They isolate themselves so they can "be themselves".

A detective is hired by the family to investigate the suspicious death of the family matriarch. He is a gay man who was a police detective until he was caught in a police raid on a gay club. He was summarily dismissed from the police force, kicked out of his apartment and at one point, beaten up by one of his former police colleagues. This is a stark reminder of how gay people were treated in the 1950's and it resonated with me for that.

Recommended. ( )

I received a free ARC copy of this book from a giveaway (thanks, Goodreads!). I'm so glad I did! I'm also glad I didn't let the cover sway my decision to read it (dead animals is a trigger for me, and fair warning/TW/CW--very minor spoiler--there IS a scene where the characters hunt & kill the rabbits that are getting into the garden). I managed to detach from that scene enough to continue reading, and I'm so glad I did! I finished this book a few weeks ago and am STILL thinking about the characters. It was an eye opening glimpse into life in the 1950s for LGBTQIA people. I absolutely adored this book and if the rumors of a sequel are true you can bet I'll be snatching up a copy! Highly recommend, 5/5. ( )

When I picked up this book, I didn't put it together that the author is the same person who wrote Jack of Hearts (and other parts), which is a title that has been high on censorship lists over the past couple of years (including in my own school district). I haven't read that novel, so I didn't really know what to expect. This story is set in 1952 San Francisco. The protagonist is Evander (he goes by Andy but I like Evander better) Mills, a recently-ex-cop who loses his job because he gets swept up in a gay club raid, is outed to his colleagues, and summarily fired. He is contemplating his next move (the future looks pretty grim) when he is offered the opportunity to investigate a suspicious death. The deceased is Irene Lamontaine, the matriarch of a soap company, and (it turns out) a secret gay family. That sounds weird, but it's exactly that. She is gay, her son is gay, and her son's "wife" is gay, and they all live together with their assorted partners and family members in a secluded mansion outside the city. As he digs into the family situation, Andy also has to examine his own life and history, as well as the meaning of family when you're part of a community that is (at that point in history) almost universally reviled -- even illegal. It's an interesting idea, and a not uncommon theme in the world of LGBTQ, since many people who identify as other than heterosexual are forced to create their own families, even now. Andy finds himself drawn to this group, and not really sure how to deal with the openness, after a lifetime of hiding and secrecy. It's a really interesting theme -- a frank and sometimes stark illustration of a time that seems both modern and totally backward in terms of humanity and civility -- and a compelling setting for a murder mystery. ( )