Under My Skin - Softcover

A vacation in the Poconos becomes a busman's holiday for lesbian PI Robin Miller when a friend, Noreen Finnegan, turns up dead. Feisty, aggressive Noreen was wielding a potted plant when she cornered her ex-lover Helen Ananias at a party the previous night. After defusing this situation, Robin learned something more was afoot: Noreen hired her to conduct an investigation--cash up front, details to follow. The next morning, when Noreen is found lying on the kitchen floor, blood pooled at the back of her head, Robin can't forget a comment she heard Helen make to Emanuela "Manny" Diaz, Noreen's latest and highly distraught lover, at the party: "It's time someone gave Noreen a little bit of her own poison." Neither the local police chief--with his sneering disdain for gays and lesbians--nor the local coroner/undertaker sees the death as anything more than "simple cardiac arrest," but Robin decides to delve into Noreen's past--and realizes someone has been there investigating before her. Although Robin's sleuthing is as sharp as always, Maiman's ( Crazy for Loving ) lengthy romantic scenes between Robin and chef K. T. Bellflower slow the pace and Robin's musings over tragedy in her own childhood are contrived and unconvincing.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Maiman's tough, troubled PI, Robin Miller, escapes to a small, old community in the Poconos, seeking respite and healing but finding murder instead. The locals have reacted to increasing numbers of gay men and lesbians buying homes in the area with everything from the undertaker-cum-coroner's outright homophobia to the down-home friendliness of the local gynecologist and his wife. When the most troublesome dyke homeowner is found dead, Miller has reason to suspect characters connected to the deceased, including her former and current lovers, a hometown boy and thief on whom she kept a file, feuding neighbors she involved in a quarter-million-dollar lawsuit, a former male porn star, and an alcoholic wife with secrets. While sleuthing, Miller resumes her romantic interest with restaurateur K. T. Belleflower; both women have to confront demons from their dysfunctional childhoods--and so does the murderer. The writing is crisp, the action taut, and the denouement a near-hysterical nail biter in this follow-up to Maiman's Lambda Award winner, Crazy for Loving. Marie Kuda