Lavender House

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.