DEATH ON THE SPECTRUM

A recently divorced, bisexual private eye takes on a possible hate crime in this debut novel.

What does a longtime LGBTQ+ activist, retired gym teacher, and mother of two do after her wife of 17 years leaves her? She gets her private investigator’s license, of course. It’s Bernadette O’Connell’s first week on the job, and she already has a possible murder on her hands. Nasir Kumrani of the Oakmont Police Department happens to be her best friend since college, and he’s got a cold case that’s right up Bernadette’s alley. Vickie Lombrosa’s death was ruled a workplace accident—the young lesbian and port supervisor suffered a fall at the city’s dock—but Nasir has come to suspect it might have been a hate crime. Bernadette accepts a position as the police department’s community liaison on the case, sniffing out any clues that might reveal foul play. As the evidence starts to point toward murder, Bernadette finds herself increasingly attracted to her old friend—and now boss—Nasir. What will their budding romance mean for their work relationship, especially when the bullets start flying? Poynter’s prose is workmanlike, if a bit expositional, as here when she and one of her contacts attend a transgender beauty pageant at a local gay bar: “Bernadette was impressed and excited about the show. She had basically dropped off the social grid since the marriage so she never saw a Rave Babes performance even though they had started up about twelve years ago.” Readers should note that the book’s title refers to the LGBTQ+ spectrum rather than the autism spectrum, and the author deftly weaves LGBTQ+ issues into the plot. For all its good instincts, the novel is a bit plodding and obvious: The scaffolding is too visible, as is its politics. But this is presumably the first installment of a mystery series starring the intriguing Bernadette, and hopefully Poynter can smooth things out for the next volume.

An ambitious but uneven mystery with LGBTQ+ themes.