Blackmail, My Love

November 17, 2014
Set in San Francisco in 1951, Gilmartin's debut artfully combines a murder mystery with a moving portrait of the thriving underground community of gays and lesbians and its institutionalized persecution. Josephine O'Conner comes to the city to find her brother Jimmy O'Conner, a closeted gay ex-cop, who's gone missing. With no help from the police, she searches among various gay gathering places, sometimes dressed as a man. Overcoming the initial distrust of the diverse people she meets, Josephine uncovers a vicious blackmail scheme targeting members of the gay community. Gilmartin effectively uses real sites such as the Black Cat as well as highlighting the laws and mores of the time that resulted in a purge of government employees suspected of being gay. When Josephine's search for answers leads to murder, a homophobic cop tries to shut her down. This is a searing reminder of an ugly time in our recent past.

This noir tale, illustrated with the author's own relief prints and set in the 1950s, pits a cross-dressing girl against police as well as, at times, the gay community where she feels at home.Josephine O'Conner isn't worried that she hasn't heard from her brother, who's gay, for several months. It's not hearing from Jimmy on her birthday that troubles her. So Josephine reinvents herself as Joe, cuts her hair short, buys a suit and heads to the hidden gay bars of San Francisco to try to track down anyone who knows about Jimmy's life. Though he'd once been a cop, he'd been ousted from the force, and none of the police will give Joe the time of day. She's sure there's more to the story, but when she tries to get more information at the station, she's discouraged from even filing a missing person report. Bar patrons are similarly silent, though Joe understands why. There's enough of a risk being out at an underground gay bar in the 1950s without getting involved with some out-of-towner with a sob story about a lost brother. The more folks Joe talks to, the more she thinks someone, maybe everyone, has something to hide about Jimmy's disappearance. A break in her search makes Joe question allegiances in the police force, and even within Jimmy's-and now Joe's-highly insular gay community. Gilmartin's hyperstylized debut is a noir pastiche ripened sometimes to the point of parody.Though all the moving parts are present and functioning, the heavy reliance on genre tropes makes the plot eminently predictable and especially suitable for readers who want to know exactly what they're getting into. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2014
Instead of a hard-boiled detective, Josephine, transformed via her missing gay brother's clothes into Joe, is raw. Nerves strung tight, she is in fear for her brother's welfare, which is of no apparent interest to the police. It's 1951, and she is also trying to adjust to the differences between her country life and San Francisco's gritty Tenderloin district. Her sense of self and community strengthen while she seeks clues at the bars Joe frequented, though she is seen as an interloper in those sanctuaries. Gilmartin's gripping tale, her first mystery, builds as Joe perseveres, meets Jimmy, a cop turned PI helping blackmailed homosexuals, survives a savage beating by two cops, and ensures dire consequences to a colluding barkeep. In a time when women wore seamed stockings, shirtwaist dresses, and gloves, revelations of the love that dare not speak its name could irrevocably ruin careers, families, and lives, and this cross-dressing young woman on a quest for the truth must inevitably traverse a treacherous path suspensefully depicted in Gilmartin's sharp prose and dramatic black-and-white illustrations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)