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A Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson Mystery
by John Copenhaver
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.
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.
"Copenhaver keeps things moving at a relentless pace as he introduces multiple narrators and a plethora of plot twists. Queer history aficionados will find the depiction of the period's antigay political paranoia fascinating. This series deserves a long life." —Publishers Weekly
"The second in the Nightingale trilogy, following The Savage Kind, is a mystery, but the historical elements add complexity as the author explores issues of passing as straight or white, concealing an identity at a time of physical and emotional violence toward LGBTQIA+ and Black people." —Library Journal
"A searing portrait of a treacherous era and the extraordinary characters who navigated through it at their peril. Hall of Mirrors is equal parts stylish noir and heart-breaking testament. I couldn't put it down." —Carol Goodman, two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of The Bones of the Story
"A Rubik's Cube of a period mystery—readers will become increasingly obsessed about the intersection of a biracial ghostwriter seeking justice for his dead partner and two fans who have been on a hunt for a serial killer. Prevailing McCarthy-era attitudes about race and sexual orientation inform the story, yet characters reign supreme. By the end of Hall of Mirrors I cared desperately for the well-being of all three seeking to embrace their truth under oppressive circumstances." —Naomi Hirahara, author of Mary Higgins Clark award-winning Clark and Division
"With Hall of Mirrors, Copenhaver deftly toes the line between harmless voyeurism and the type of subversive curiosity that turns fans into predators. You float through the story, an unseen guest watching everything unfold, noting all the beautiful period details that anchor the narrative in the 1950s - brass bar carts, bold wallpaper - until all at once, you realize that this perverse kind of observation may have led to the death of an innocent man. If Architectural Digest started a True Crime Beat, Copenhaver would be the magazine's star writer." —Ava Barry, author of Double Exposure
This information about Hall of Mirrors 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.
John Copenhaver won the 2019 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery for Dodging and Burning and the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Best Mystery for The Savage Kind. He is a co-founder of Queer Crime Writers and an at-large board member of Mystery Writers of America. He cohosts on the House of Mystery Radio Show. He's a faculty mentor in the University of Nebraska's Low-Residency MFA program and teaches at VCU in Richmond, VA.
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