Lavender House
Ratings21
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings21
Average rating3.9
A delicious story from a new voice in suspense, Lev AC Rosen's Lavender House is Knives Out with a queer historical twist. Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well guarded secret—but it's not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they've needed to keep others out. And now they're worried they're keeping a murderer in. Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept—his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand. Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He's seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn't extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy—and Irene’s death is only the beginning. When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.
Featured Series
3 primary booksEvander Mills is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2022 with contributions by Lev AC Rosen. The next book is scheduled for release on 10/7/2025.
Reviews with the most likes.
This was a great homage to the hard boiled detective genre. I adored the shout out to Johnny Dollar and flipping the femme fatale character on its head. Then they gave that character so much depth! I am so sad that this book is not marketed as an homage to the hard boiled detective genre. Without that background knowledge, there are so many wonderful details that get lost.
The mystery is good. The clues are good. The characters are all suspicious as they should be. Wonderful book!
TWs: Homomisia, slurs, hate crime/violence, animal death/hunting
4.5 rounded up
It's a queer novel surrounding a death in the Lavender House.. it was quite interesting! I enjoyed the queer/LGBTQ theme and the message behind exile, mistreatment, discrimination, etc. It's set in the 1950s but still quite relatable and feels modern. The pacing seemed just right, and it was a nice and short read but packed with messages and relatable feelings.
hmmm I wouldn't normally have picked up a noir-ish mystery novel on my own but I'd enjoyed Rosen's YA books and I was intrigued by the 50s queer San Francisco setting. (In the afterword Rosen notes that he'd turned in his first draft of this before [b:Last Night at the Telegraph Club 35224992 Last Night at the Telegraph Club Malinda Lo https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1593457992l/35224992.SY75.jpg 56568979] came out but appreciated the similar settings, though they are wildly different. Anyway I think my love of Last Night at the Telegraph Club also drew me to the Lavender House, but again, they are very different books aside from the setting.)Anyway sooo I enjoyed the historical detail but this wasn't reallly my cup of tea. I also see why Knives Out would be a comp, based on the family dynasty mystery aspect of it, but Knives Out is FUNNY, and Rosen's other books are FUNNY, and this book is PRETTY SERIOUS. And that's a totally valid thing for a mystery novel to be but I just prefer...not that. I wish there were either more development to actually flesh out all the characters who live in the Lavender House, or more jokes to distract me from the pretty flat characters. Readers who enjoy murder mysteries in general will probably like this more than I did. But I still liked the historical setting and the Lavender House itself, just overall not my fav.
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