Fiction Monday – Lesbian Romance AND Mystery – Gerri Hill

If you’ve been reading my post for the past few months (or yesterday, even), you know that I love a good mystery. “Mystery” is definitely my favorite fiction genre. This is mirrored by my love of crime fiction which often falls into the same category whether it has a mystery element or not. My second favorite genre is lesbian romance although, I do admit, that I don’t care for a lot of mush. A bit of angst is about all I can handle. In romance, I like there to be a plot beyond girl meets girl/girls fall in love/girl loses girl/girl gets girl back. Anyway, it’s always a joy to read works by an author who can skillfully combine my two favorite genres and avoid a formulaic plot.

In my first “Fiction Monday” post on May 23rd of this year, I mentioned that my first purchased work of lesbian fiction was Hunter’s Pursuit by Kim Baldwin. In that book, her first full length novel, Kim combines the elements of lesbian romance and mystery very well. Subsequent books by her are similar. Another notable lesbian author who does this well is the amazing fan favorite, Gerri Hill.

Gerri currently has 19 published books to her credit, beginning with her first published by Bella Books in 2003, Gulf Breeze. That book and the next few that she wrote, were primarily works of lesbian romance. She’s been a busy writer averaging a couple of books a year.

In 2005, Gerri penned Hunter’s Way, a still popular work of crime fiction and lesbian romance centered around a difficult to work with female detective and her new, straight, female partner who doesn’t take her crap like all the male partners before her did. It’s one of my favorite of her books. Many others, both gay and straight agree! It’s just a well done story.

2006 saw Hill return to mystery/lesbian romance fiction with her work, The Killing Room. In that book we get an out cop and a closeted shrink who keep getting pulled together despite their attempts to stay apart…oh, and there’s a serial killer in the mix.

Keeping readers like me happy is easy when you produce work like the 2007 publication, The Target. Nature figures prominently in many of Hill’s works and this time around we get a combination of suspense, romance and nature all wrapped up in a good story about a senator’s daughter in danger because his family is receiving death threats due to his presidential candidacy. She, of course, refuses protection. Enter the undercover female FBI agent sent to protect her by infiltrating the group of women she is leading on a two week hiking tour of the Rockies. Imagine what ensues!

In the Name of the Father is the late 2007 follow-up to Hunter’s Way. It’s a good story in it’s own right but it’s primarily a work of crime fiction. Our heriones are already together and, though there’s always some angst, this one is a lot about crime and less about romance and getting the girl. Hill lays some groundwork in this book though with the introduction of a 3rd female detective that pays off romantically in her late 2008 publication Partners. The publication of Partners seems to wrap up the series nicely. Although the plots remained strong throughout the three books and the writing was solid, my personal opinion is that the first book was the best book.

Gerri Hall wrote five more books after Partners, the latest of which, Storms, was released in July. I haven’t read Storms, primarily a romance, yet. Three of the other four books were the mystery/crime/romance combination that I prefer. I have plans to read one, The Scorpion, very soon. Check back later for my review!