The 12th Micky Knight - as good as ever
Since 1990 Jean Redman chronicles with PI Micky Knight our lesbian and queer history. Her books are always tightly packed, well written, good mysteries with a political undercurrent, firmly set in New Orleans / Louisiana culture and with plenty of found family. If you have not yet met Micky Knight, gruff, with rough edges, but good people and her friends, it might be high time you do.
The 12th book in the series tackles a hate crime - a hate crime committed not only against a lesbian but a prominent leader, a rabbi of the Jewish community. A hot-button topic at this moment of time.
What sticks out throughout the book is the raw grief of rabbi Sarah who has to flee from her community in NYC and how Micky (reluctantly at first) and then her friends rally. Not glossing over with a quick healing for a grief-stricken widow but the tender start of mourning and possibility.
The evil is creeping in slowly: disgruntled small men with britches too big, people only following orders, bullies - the anatomy of a hate-crime is laid open in all its ugliness. Small increments which amount to murder. Brilliantly done.

PS.: The book focuses on right-wing, so-called Christian white supremacy it doesn‘t bear thinking but it came to mind that a Jewish rabbi might be in danger from more than that rather obvious direction.

I received an ARC via netgalley. The review is left voluntarily.

I can’t not give Micky a 5* review. She’s my favourite PI and I’ve followed her career from her cases in the bayou when she nearly died. It’s hard to believe Micky is a creation. She’s been around for a while, she ages and matures, and she just feels so real. Part of me thinks if I went to New Orleans, I could pop into her office to say hello. Or bump into her ‘accidentally’ at one of Torbin’s drag shows.

This is her twelfth adventure and Ms Redmann is assured in her handling of multiple threads while keeping all the various characters moving forward through the plot. There’s no ‘fillers’ here. It’s a tight plot from the first page, when Micky is lined up to be a bodyguard for a rabbi, to the last few pages when we find out the who and the why. The ending is satisfying and nicely finishes this story while leading us on to the next ~ which I’m hoping Ms Redmann is busy writing.

The rabbi, Sarah, has come to NO to escape an attempt on her life which killed her wife, Leah. She’s mourning, she’s raw, she’s lost in so many ways, and she doesn’t know who to trust. Micky is happy being muscle but less comfortable being a shoulder as it’s out of her depth to do ‘emotions’. But we know that Micky has her circle of friends who all come through for her.

The author is well versed in spinning a story while making a subtle political point and this is no different. We get an insight into hate groups and their methods and control. How naïveté can be coerced into doing criminal acts. How desperate people can do desperate things. But also, to quote Arendt, the ‘banality of evil’. Who becomes a target is hard to assess in the current world and the plotting pulls us along while showing us how school bullies, and people for whom wealth is a weapon, manipulate (or try to) the ‘little people’.

Micky is morally strong, she has her own very clear ethics on what is acceptable, and she always does the right thing, even if that means not making promises. Sarah is a lovely character, the usual gang all get their screen time. Cordelia is there wiping blood off Micky as she usually has to. I’m looking forward to book 13.

If you haven’t come across Micky Knight and you like detective fiction with strong female characters, do yourself a favour and start at book one and work through to this one. I envy you meeting Micky for the first time, and I know you’ll be hooked.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

This is the next installment of Mickey Knight books.
Mickey has been asked to keep an eye on Rabbi Sarah whose wife was recently killed. The question is was her wife the real target or was it Sarah.
Sarah is reluctant to have a guard but at the same time ahe’s still mourning her wife.
Things are going to take unexpected turns until the truth finally hits.

This is another enjoyable read by J.M. Redmann and you won’t be disappointed.