Murder at the Nightwood Bar by Katherine V. Forrest

Murder at the Nightwood Bar
by Katherine V. Forrest
Pages: 184
Date: October 17 2011 (originally published 1987)
Publisher: Bella Books
Series: Kate Delafield (second in the series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Read: January 22 to January 23 2015

Most books I rate five stars I know right away that it's possible. Oh, something might happen that lowers it, sometimes all the way to 1 star, or even no stars, but I tend to know.  This one?  Sneaked up on me.  I figured for the longest time, while I was reading it, that it would likely end up being somewhere between a three and four star work.  There wasn't really anything to put it there, just nothing that leapt out at me grabbed me by the neck and screamed "this will be a five star book".  At least not till the last part of the book. Where it kind of hit me how deep the book was.  How . . . bah.

Mostly I was noticing things, before this revelation, like how this head homicide detective only seemed to get involved with women when they are part of her investigation.  There's a back story there that may or may not be spoiler-y.  Happened in the first book. Happened in this one.  And they are the kind where people in need hook up, and not people in love.  That's one of the things I noticed.  It is not something I'd add or subtract stars for.

The racial, homophobic annoyances that popped up in the first book were toned down.  A lot of the things like that were toned down.  Still there but milder.  Which is odd, in a way, when you consider the plot of the book.  heh.