The Monarchs Are Flying: A Mystery

In the isolated, conservative Ontario village of Spruce Falls, TV reporter Leslie Taylor is arrested for the murder of her one-time lover, Marcie Denton, who, after their breakup, married an abusive man she had been trying to leave. Harriet Fordham Croft, a robust, older, divorced Toronto lawyer who has bouts of inexplicable loneliness, is called onto the case by Marcie's sleazy husband: he wants to be sure that Leslie is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But Harriet, attracted by Leslie's courage and forthrightness, suspects that the community's hostility to lesbianism has resulted in her being railroaded. After Leslie fires her scummy local lawyer, Harriet agrees to represent her and, in firm fashion, proves her innocence and gets the murderer to confess on the stand during the trial. Upon Leslie's release, Harriet realizes that she has fallen in love with her client, and the two make their first tender overtures. As a mystery, this book fails. (Not enough information is given until the end for the reader to speculate satisfyingly about other murder suspects.) As a feminist narative, it's passable. (December)