By Michele Karlsberg–
Barbara Wilson’s Murder in the Collective was one of the first lesbian mysteries ever published. Her later Cassandra Reilly series, featuring a footloose Irish-American translator who solves mysteries while exploring London, Barcelona, and Venice, won her a British Crime Writers’ award. Gaudi Afternoon was made into a film with Judy Davis and Marcia Gay Hardin, and won a Lambda Literary Award. Now Cassandra Reilly has returned in a new mystery—Not the Real Jupiter—set on the Oregon coast. Here is an excerpt:
Once I was headed into the Northwest street numbers I found Giselle’s cottage easily enough, just off NW Coast. It was the last residence near the edge of the bluff; the street ended in a wooden barrier. The cottage must have a stunning view when the sun was out, but now the battered gray shingles hardly stood out in the fog. There were signs of remodeling: shingles removed around a couple of newly installed, unpainted sash windows at the front of the house, and bundles of cedar shakes in the sandy front yard.
In the driveway I saw a late-model Prius, but no house lights were on. Tarpaper flapped wildly on the part of the roof facing the sea. Up here on the bluff with only a few houses around, and no one in sight, the waves and wind combined to create a continuous roar, made more eerie by the fact that the ocean waves were invisible behind a bank of fog.
I knocked on the front door. I rang the bell. My watch said I was over half an hour late, but surely she wouldn’t have gone off and just left me to stand here? Through the small windows at the top of the door, I glimpsed a hallway leading to a larger room with photographs on the wall and bookshelves. Maybe there was an office in back and she hadn’t heard me knock or ring because of the sound of the wind and waves.
I took out my phone and checked, then called and left her a voice message. Her recording reminded me of the seductive power of her voice, even though the words themselves were brief and business-like. “You’ve reached Giselle Richard and Entre Editions. Sorry, I’m out of the office right now, but will return your call as soon as possible.”
Maybe I should go around to the back of the house and see if she was somewhere about. The wind was even stronger on the ocean-facing side, where I found a small deck with a couple of chairs knocked over and a metal table on its side. A sliding glass door to the house also seemed scheduled to be replaced, with the shingles removed all around the edges.
Standing on the deck, I could see a small basic kitchen with a table and two chairs off to the right, while the glass door, undraped, opened directly into a living room that had been turned intoan office with the addition of a modern desk piled with piles of paper and books. A laptop was open on the desk. I tried the rusty latch of the glass door and it squeaked open. I wasn’t sure if it was broken or just not closed correctly, but I took that squeak as an invitation to enter.
For more information on Barbara Wilson and her books: https://www.barbarawilsonmysteries.com
Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management specializes in publicity for the LGBTQ+ community. This year, Karlsberg celebrates 32 years of successful marketing campaigns. For more information: https://www.michelekarlsberg.com
Published on May 20, 2021
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