Happy belated Bi Visibility Day!
In case you missed my shameless self-promotion yesterday, I celebrated the occasion by writing this piece for Teen Vogue about the feeling of not being “bi enough.” Check it out if that sounds interesting to you!
And in a continued form of celebration, please let me introduce you to this bisexual private investigator mystery novel.
Personally, that summary would be enough for me to pick up this book. But if it’s not for you, read on.
— Becca
P.S. If you can, please consider donating to the Louisville Bail Fund. While Breonna Taylor’s killers walked free yesterday, at least 127 people were arrested last night while protesting the injustice.
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka
Fiction, June 2017
TW: violence and sexual assault
Sarah Cook disappeared 15 years ago, on the same night that her parents were brutally murdered in their home. Her boyfriend, a Black man named Brad Stockton, was convicted of the murders and is on death row. Now, with his execution a mere two months away, his sister hires PI Roxane Weary to take on the case and find new evidence that might save Brad.
Roxane, a moody bisexual PI, isn’t in an ideal state for a case of this weight. Her cop father was killed on the job a few months ago, and she seems to mainly be coping with copious amounts of whiskey. And also by hooking up with people she probably shouldn’t.
But she’s also broke! So she takes the job.
Not long after, she finds the body of a teenage girl—but it’s a different teenage girl than the one she went looking for. And that’s not even the last body she finds.
If I am making this novel sound dark, the subject matter certainly is. But reading it was incredibly fun, in the way that I imagine true crime podcasts are for true crime podcast people. It’s a prime example of a plot-driven novel, with action on almost every page.
I found myself not only rushing for answers, but also rooting for our messy bisexual protagonist the whole way through.
The last 50 pages in particular read kind of like an SVU episode, and they do require a bit of suspension of disbelief. But I was more than willing to give that to this absolute ride of a novel, and I hope you will be, too.
Queer points:
+3 for a queer woman working on a portrait project described as “Richard Avedon, except naked dykes”
+5 for a sweet lil queer teen crush
+11 for angsty, arguably toxic hookups with both a man and a woman. I really do love to see it!
Buy it from Gramercy Books