Hall of Mirrors
A Novel
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- $36.99
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- $36.99
Publisher Description
When a popular mystery novelist dies suspiciously, his writing partner must untangle the author’s connection to a serial killer in award-winning John Copenhaver’s new novel set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, DC.
*A Washington Post and TODAY.com must-read book selection*
In May 1954, Lionel Kane witnesses his apartment engulfed in flames with his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, inside. Police declare it a suicide due to gas ignition, but Lionel refuses to believe Roger was suicidal.
A month earlier, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson—the tenacious and troubled heroines from The Savage Kind—attend a lecture by Roger and, being eager fans, befriend him. He has just been fired from his day job at the State Department, another victim of the Lavender Scare, an anti-gay crusade led by figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, claiming homosexuals are security risks. Little do Judy and Philippa know, but their obsessive manhunt of the past several years has fueled the flames of his dismissal.
They have been tracking their old enemy Adrian Bogdan, a spy and vicious serial killer protected by powerful forces in the government. He’s on the rampage again, and the police are ignoring his crimes. Frustrated, they send their research to the media and their favorite mystery writer anonymously, hoping to inspire someone, somehow, to publish on the crimes—anything to draw Bogdan out. But has their persistence brought deadly forces to the writing team behind their most beloved books?
In the wake of Roger’s death, Lionel searches for clues, but Judy and Philippa threaten his quest, concealing dark secrets of their own. As the crimes of the past and present converge, danger mounts, and the characters race to uncover the truth, even if it means bending their moral boundaries to stop a killer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lesbian amateur sleuths Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson face down a serial killer in Copenhaver's enjoyable sequel to The Savage Kind. The action kicks off when Nightingale and Watson's friend and literary hero, mystery writer Roger Raymond, is found dead in the ruins of his burned-out Washington, D.C., home during the 1950s Lavender Scare. Police quickly dismiss the death as another homosexual suicide—the body was discovered with its head in the kitchen oven—but inconsistencies at the scene lead Nightingale and Watson to speculate that the dead man may not have been Raymond at all. They team up with Raymond's lover and writing partner, Lionel Kane, to investigate, and their inquiry points toward one of their old enemies: Adrian Bodgan, a homophobic government spy and serial killer who has friends in high places. Might Nightingale and Watson's previous efforts to oust Bodgan have provoked him to lash out against Raymond? Copenhaver keeps things moving at a relentless pace as he introduces multiple narrators and a plethora of plot twists. Fans of the first book will enjoy the deepening of Nightingale and Watson's romantic relationship, and queer history aficionados will find the depiction of the period's antigay political paranoia fascinating. This series deserves a long life.
