Time to Cast Away

Helen Black, fresh from jail after having been convicted of a murder, trying to keep her nose clean and get her life back together, ends up doing just the opposite as this tale unfolds. She becomes a reluctant investigator in another murder when she finds Alice, a woman that she recently met in a bar, dead in Alice's apartment a week after their initial meeting. Struggling to leave the mystery to the police, with one of the officers a former partner who is dealing with his own demons and taking out his anger on the former detective-turned-PI-now-ex-con. Helen is haunted by her discovery of Alice's body and of the clues she's found at the scene. Helen engages the help of the beautiful MCC minister, Maggie Evans, all the while battling her feelings for this new acquaintance and wondering why she is willing to let her defenses down for this lovely, green-eyed woman of the cloth. The path the two women follow takes them from Berkeley to Napa-to an old, established wine-making dynasty-where Helen starts to unravel the connections between the dead woman, the wine-making Giorgi family, and the mysterious woman Helen encounters after Alice's memorial service. Will Helen be able to put it all together and find the murderer before any harm comes to Maggie or to Helen herself? Will she be able to stay out of trouble-and out of jail-in the process? And most important of all, will she ever be able to let someone into her life again? This engaging mystery keeps the reader wondering about all these questions and more. There is one conflict that was never resolved in this story: that of the clash between Helen and her old partner, Manny; but the story itself is both intriguing and enjoyable. Helen Black fans will welcome this most recent entry by Pat Welch into the lesbian mystery genre.