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Vera Kelly #3
by Rosalie Knecht
Everyone's favorite sleuth - Vera Kelly - is back and put to the test as she searches for her missing girlfriend.
It's spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend, Max, leave their cozy Brooklyn apartment for an emergency visit to Max's estranged family in Los Angeles. Max's parents are divorcing―her father is already engaged to a much younger woman and under the sway of an occultist charlatan; her mother has left their estate in a hurry with no indication of return. Max, who hasn't seen her family since they threw her out at the age of twenty-one, prepares for the trip with equal parts dread and anger.
Upon arriving, Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate―the sprawling, manicured landscape; expansive and ornate buildings; and garages full of luxury cars reveal a privileged upbringing that, up until this point, Max had only hinted at―while Max attempts to navigate her father, who is hostile and controlling, and the occultist, St. James, who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money. Tensions boil over at dinner when Max threatens to alert her mother―and her mother's lawyers―to St. James and her father's plans using marital assets. The next morning, when Vera wakes up, Max is gone.
In Vera Kelly: Lost and Found, Rosalie Knecht gives Vera her highest-stake case yet, as Vera quickly puts her private detective skills to good use and tracks a trail of breadcrumbs across southern California to find her missing girlfriend. She travels first to a film set in Santa Ynez and, ultimately, to a most unlikely destination where Vera has to decide how much she is willing to commit to save the woman she loves.
"[E]xcellent...Filled with well-drawn, quirky characters, the novel captures both the hidden pleasures and not so hidden dangers of a closeted existence. This nuanced portrait of gay life in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots thoroughly satisfies." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Knecht continues to paint a gritty yet romantic picture in her third Vera novel...The internal tension is palpable, and the humorous moments offer tremendous relief." - Booklist (starred review)
"Knecht has crafted an intriguing title character, and it's a pleasure to watch Vera allow herself to be devoted to a partner and to trust in the life they have built together. An immersive encounter with a beloved character." - Kirkus Reviews
"Once more Rosalie Knecht proves herself one of the finest writers in the genre: brisk, witty, and emotionally intelligent. The much-anticipated return of Vera Kelly turns a tight plot around the failures of family and high stakes love, betrayal and the unlikely adventure toward self acceptance. This novel is a pleasure as wise as it is thrilling." - Tracy O'Neill, author of Quotients
This information about Vera Kelly: Lost and Found was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Rosalie Knecht grew up in Pennsylvania, attended Oberlin College and the City University of New York, and works in social services in New York City. She translated César Aira's The Seamstress and the Wind while teaching English in a teacher's college in Argentina. She is the author of Relief Map and the Vera Kelly series.
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