Fiction Monday: Blind Leading the Blind – An Erik & Liz Mystery

If you know me, then you know that I love a good mystery. Even better than just a plain old mystery is one that involves some hottie lesbian types doing the heavy lifting in the story line! I was so excited to discover a book by a “new” author that covered both of those bases.

My book review today is of the book, Blind Leading the Blind by Susan Landis-Steward. Susan, according to her bio, was a journalist for 20 years. This, however, appears to be her first book. Not to worry though, she has set it up well to be the first in, hopefully, a long series if she wishes to write more. Blind Leading the Blind was published by Susan’s own print on demand and ebook publishing company that focuses on new and emerging writers. I hope that both the company and her own book(s) do well for her.

In the story, we have “Erik” a strong, butch lesbian detective on the hunt for her missing teenage (14) niece, Ashley. Helping Erik to find Ashley is Ashley’s therapist, the totally femme Liz. Erik doesn’t think Liz will be much help though because, as it happens, Liz is blind. Erik has her own demons to deal with…don’t all dark and brooding butches? In the process of finding Ashley though, brooding Erik and blind Liz find each other.

Sound formula? It’s not, really. There are enough twists and turns to keep things lively and interesting. What’s more, it’s realistic. You don’t have to suspend reality to find believe-ability in this book. Along the lines of a Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky female based detective mystery, our heroine, Erik, has no superpowers or extraordinary skills that get her out of tight jams conveniently. She just has her wits and that’s what she uses along with Liz’s knowledge of human nature. Together they form a good team but their limitations keep a real feel to the action sequences.

Yes, for those of you reading this who want to know, there’s a bit of the “other” kind of action, sex, too. Not much, but some. It fit well into the story. More would have taken away from the plot in this case.

One of my chief complaints about the “1st books” I’ve reviewed here has been that the author tried too hard by having lots and lots of characters to keep the plot flowing and interesting. That often over-complicates things. That’s not the case here. Landis-Stewards writing is tight and her main characters are well developed. As I said, this is well set up to become a series. I envision a series similar to the Kinsey Milhone or V.I. Warshawski type (as written by Grafton and Paretsky respectively) with a lesbian twist. I hope I’m right.

Help this author out and buy this book! Boost up her Amazon sales rank a bit to encourage her to keep writing great mysteries involving Erik and Liz.