The first novels I can remember reading that had lesbian characters were The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg. And I have already mentioned Monette O’Reilly, towering lesbian and star player of the Leaping Lesbians of Park Slope featured in the mysteries by David Stukas. Here are some lesbian mystery novels you may enjoy.
Kate Delafield series by Katherine V Forrest, recipient of Lambda Literary Foundations Pioneer Award in 1998, the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Awards and The Trailblazer Award and the Alice B Readers Award medal. Another Canadian author,(Windsor Ontario), is best known for this series. Delafield is supposed to be the first American lesbian police detective and has been described as “Miss Marple with k.d. lang, Sherlock Holmes with Candace Gingrich…ex Marine Homicide detective for the LAPD, queer-as-the day-is-long heroine”. While Wilson’s series is sex-free Forrest has no qualms in using eroticism and lesbian sexuality.
There are many more books to be read and sexuality of all forms has definitely come out of the closet. So enjoy Pride and discover this for yourself!
