Best known for her Kate Delafield detective series, Katherine V. Forrest is recognized as one of the preeminent figures in lesbian popular literature. Yet her work has received little scholarly attention. This critical study explores Forrest's entire body of work, including her fiction and (perhaps more importantly) her writing about writing, popular genres and her readers. Her science fiction and romance novels are analyzed, with a focus on the reasons behind their enduring appeal. Her most famous romance, Curious Wine, originally published in 1984, remains in print--a longevity far exceeding the typical romance novel.

Tough and demanding LAPD Detective Kate Delafield is the leader of the investigation into a highrise office building murder. The case is intriguing but routine—until Kate interviews the only witness, Ellen O’Neil. When Ellen O’Neil took her new job over the objections of her lover, she wasn’t expecting to become embroiled in murder. The curiosity that Kate Delafield rouses is equally unexpected. But it is never far from Ellen’s mind that she is merely a name on an interview sheet to the tight-lipped detective. Kate’s thin trail of clues are enough to convince her that she is looking for an amateur, and amateurs are notoriously unpredictable and dangerous. She finds her path increasingly intersecting with that of Ellen O’Neil, who is proving unpredictable and dangerous in a far more personal way. AMATEUR CITY is the first novel in the compelling Kate Delafield mystery series that has gripped readers all over the world.

Best known for her Kate Delafield detective series, Katherine V. Forrest is recognized as one of the preeminent figures in lesbian popular literature. Yet her work has received little scholarly attention. This critical study explores Forrest's entire body of work, including her fiction and (perhaps more importantly) her writing about writing, popular genres and her readers. Her science fiction and romance novels are analyzed, with a focus on the reasons behind their enduring appeal. Her most famous romance, Curious Wine, originally published in 1984, remains in print--a longevity far exceeding the typical romance novel.

“Whatever else will be said about her—and you can bet there will be plenty, because Barbara was no stranger to controversy—the one thing that is true above all else is that she was the most important person in lesbian publishing in the world. Without her boldness and her audacity, there might not be the robust lesbian publishing industry there is today.” —Teresa DeCrescenzo Barbara Grier—feminist, activist, publisher, and archivist—was many things to different people. Perhaps most well known as one of the founders of Naiad Press, Barbara’s unapologetic drive to make sure that lesbians everywhere had access to books with stories that reflected their lives in positive ways was legendary. Barbara changed the lives of thousands of women in her lifetime. For the first time, historian Joanne Passet uncovers the controversial and often polarizing life of this firebrand editor and publisher with new and never before published letters, interviews, and other personal material from Grier’s own papers. Passet takes readers behind the scenes of The Ladder, offering a rare window onto the isolated and bereft lives lesbians experienced before the feminist movement and during the earliest days of gay political organizing. Through extensive letters between Grier and her friend novelist Jane Rule, Passet offers a virtual diary of this dramatic and repressive era. Passet also looks at Grier’s infamous “theft” of The Ladder’s mailing list, which in turn allowed her to launch and promote Naiad Press, the groundbreaking women’s publishing company she founded with partner Donna McBride in 1973. Naiad went on to become one of the leaders in gay and lesbian book publishing and for years helped sustain lesbian and feminist bookstores—and readers—across the country.

For over two decades, Clues has included the best scholarship on mystery and detective fiction. With a combination of academic essays and nonfiction book reviews, it covers all aspects of mystery and detective fiction material in print, television and movies. As the only American scholarly journal on mystery fiction, Clues is essential reading for literature and film students and researchers; popular culture aficionados; librarians; and mystery authors, fans and critics around the globe.

For LAPD Homicide Detective Kate Delafield, Washington DC is the last place on earth she wants to be. But, thanks to her partner’s machinations, here she is. Driven by insatiable curiosity about a past Kate has adamantly refused to share, Aimee has maneuvered her into attending what Aimee views as an innocuous reunion of the men and women with whom Kate served as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam twenty-five years ago. The past resurfaces with a vengeance. First, shots are fired into their hotel room. Then a savage murder is committed by someone attending the reunion. Kate finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation in a city where she has no jurisdiction, confronted by detectives who view her with contentious suspicion. And Aimee learns to her consternation that Kate has had very good reasons to hold her memories at bay. Shocking secrets emerge—among them the alluring Rachel, who has now, thanks to Aimee, reentered Kate’s life. In unknown and hostile terrain, Kate must find a way through her tumultuous emotions, must use all her training and resourcefulness to protect herself and Aimee from the lethal danger gathering all around them.

Soldier Talk is a collection of essays about the Vietnam combat veteran and his representation of his experience. The Vietnam War created a vast archive of recorded accounts of the war, permitting an unprecedented opportunity to confront its brutal secrets. This book is about how to read and how to hear the historical, psychological, and narrative truths of soldiers' talk. The ten chapters explore the phenomenon of soldier talk; the oral narrative form of so much of the Vietnam War literature; the collection of veteran interviews published under the title Nam; Vietnam War poetry; the strange tale of Bobby Garwood, the private who disappeared 10 days before he was to return home and surfaced 13 years later in Hanoi; Vietnam oral history and revolutionary socialism; the historiography of the Vietnam War; "queering Vietnam"; the African American experience of Vietnam; and women and the war. Along the way the authors touch on most of the best-known and most important writing to come out of the war.