Product Description

The murdered body of lesbian publisher Rosemary Finney is found on a remote hiking path south of San Francisco. Local police of the wealthy Woodside enclave quickly focus on a prime suspect: Investigative Reporter Velvet Erickson. Velvet appeals to her friend and former lover--private eye Yoshi Yakamota, whose detective skills more than make up for her failing eyesight--for help. Yoshi dedicates the resources of her firm, Blind Eye Detective Agency, to proving her friend's innocence. But every time the investigators rule out one suspect, another takes their place. What has Rosemary Finney done to make so many enemies? And which one did it?

First in the Blind Eye mystery series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #871671 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Fantastic New Mystery Series

Blind Curves is the first book in a thrilling new detective series by Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall. The story takes place in San Francisco, the authors' home, and the descriptions are rich and lively, thus making the city itself an additional character in the novel.

Velvet Erickson, journalist, is suspected of killing wealthy publisher and former lover, Rosemary Finney. Since she is the only suspect and must prove her innocence within 48 hours or be jailed until her trial, she hires friend Yoshi Yakamoto, owner of Blind Eye Detective Agency. Yoshi and fellow detective Bud Williams set out to find the killer, but along the way they uncover corruption at the highest levels in the wealthy secluded town of Woodside, south of San Francisco. In a race against time, the real murderer is doing everything possible to keep the truth from unfolding, and Velvet is counting on the Blind Eye team to save her skin.

This easy to read, down to earth novel is electrifying from the get-go. The pace moves at a quick clip, and the authors clearly explain the complex relationships as they divulge key clues. Blind Curves is used metaphorically and literally throughout the book tying together the mystery puzzle neatly in the end.

The character development though is what makes this novel stand out and will make the reader craving for more in the series as they complete Blind Curves. In revealing that Yoshi is legally blind and Bud is a paraplegic and wheelchair bound, we get a glimpse of the challenges they face and how they compensate. But the reader does not feel sorry for these two because Blind Curves strips away the labels and gives us gritty, likeable, and appealing characters. The authors add depth to their characterization by enlightening us, and we see Yoshi as clever, intelligent and at times manipulative, but never helpless. This detective knows how to get to the facts, and she uses all of her resources to do it. Anderson-Minshalls add to the book by including wonderfully colorful secondary characters in Tucker, Yoshi's receptionist, and AJ, an East Palo Alto policewoman.

One of the best features of this book is that all of the key characters except Bud are lesbians, and that's the way I like my fiction. While the reader is left hanging as to what the future has in store for these characters, I was fully satisfied with Blind Curves. I am counting the days until Blind Leap's release in October of 2007.

so-so beach read with stereotypical characters
Being a Bay Area native I enjoyed the Peninsula/San Francisco geography in this book and all the queer content, but it's little more than a "beach read" full of stereotypical characters, glaring social/political agendas (do you all write for the L Word?!), and bland sexiness. So don't expect anything deep, or exceptional writing.

The authors have some background in lezzie mags/publishing and they went with what they know about... but this is fiction, not some magazine. Anti Bush sentiments by page 11... both detectives have disabilities... corruption among the rich and powerful, Katrina blah blah blah. Lezzies are always derailing the potential for fabulous entertainment and real character development by pushing agendas. It's not so much that these topics shouldn't be there... somehow they feel present at the expense of a more honest story. Again, too much reporting and not enough blood and sweat storytelling.

That said, Yoshi, the blind detective, has some real potential. How about some evidence? Show us she's a "kung-fu-fighting, kick XXX Asian girl assassin" type rather than merely having a couple of the characters praise her as much. She could have been cool and hilarious but instead came off as rather dull and repressed. Lots of potential for humor here but this angle isn't particularly developed in the book too much. Don't get me wrong... I laughed here and there, and to some extent enjoyed all the stereotypical lesbo behavior (therapist and all)... but way too many dry spots.

These authors should run with their potential for humor a lot more and hire a young, literate sex fiend to integrate and edit all sex and sexy scenes because this book is hurting bad for some real sexiness. I mean "mammoth breasts" and "hot breath building up in a layer between them like LA smog"... lol, what is that? Probably the result of two married queer authors holed up for about 20 years clearly suffering from lesbian death bed.

AJ was a very appealing character but somewhat disjointed from the story. Better editing needed here. Karen was mighty cool too but developed (barely) a tad late. Personally, I was more interested in Karen and Rosemary's relationship than Tucker and Velvet's... but all we get is second hand info. And what's up with the only straight guy being like some redneck homophobe in a wheelchair? Stereotypical foil that was more annoying than funny (except the part about only being tall enough to have to stare at some other guy's package all the time). None of the characters really experience any serious growth here. Boring. No heart.

Gotta ask... in the end when Detective Fleishman is arresting the perp and says, "Well, gang, I always knew you weren't to be taken for granted, but I never expected you'd take down XXXXX"... was that closure...?? or plagiarism from a Scooby Doo episode?? lol. Just don't know if all the popular TV worked here... bah.

I'm always a little harsh on the queer writers because quite frankly most of them are so bad (bless you BoldStrokes for giving all the newbies and big publishing rejects a shot, but dang...). However, if your standards are low because there's so much badly written dyke stories out there and we tend to take what we can get just to see ourselves in stories... then you won't mind this one too much. If it didn't take place in the Bay Area, I'd give it a 2.

If you want a good Bold Strokes/Lesbian mystery... check out Hunter's Pursuit by Kim Baldwin. It's a page turner.