One of the most ground-breaking of our authors is Nikki Baker: an African-American lesbian who created the first series African-American Lesbian amateur PI. The feminist press Naiad Press was publishing an impressively vast array of titles under the leadership of Barbara Grier and Donna McBride as early as 1973(!). But it wasn’t until Nikki Baker submitted her first manuscript that a black lesbian main character in a mystery series was published in 1991.
Nikki Baker is a pseudonym and, to this day, Ms Baker prefers to remain out of the limelight. (Our arrangement even precludes using photographs of her.) Virginia Kelly is a terrific invention: a Chicago-based 30s-something African-American out lesbian banker / financial analyst who stumbles across bodies and solves murders … in Chicago, on holiday in Provincetown, at a high school reunion at xmas time, and finally during a corporate takeover of the firm she toils at: Whytebread & Greese (the latter is an example of her sly, dry humor).
The four books in the series zip along with keen observations of life, both profound and sometimes hysterical. They are authentic voices; the dialog crisp, believable; the depictions of corporate life insightful; and Virginia’s ongoing lovelife engaging and real. They are deliciously entertaining reads.
Nikki Baker’s Virginia Kelly Series
Nikki Baker’s first novel, In The Game, was tossed off as a bit of lark and diversion, and published by Barbara Grier and Donna McBride’s Naiad Press in 1991. Set in Chicago and written in the spirit of pulp fiction, it featured a black lesbian as hero and charmed readers instantly. The Lavender House Murder, set in Provincetown, followed in 1992. With the third book, Long Goodbyes, a substantial audience had grown and the author had been nominated for a Lambda Literary Lesbian Mystery Award. Kelly’s final appearance, The Ultimate Exit Strategy, was published in 1996. Ms Baker, throughout, remained a bit mysterious herself. In the 25 years since, fans have continued to clamour for fresh adventures and ponder about Kelly’s ongoing relationships.
“Baker has produced a winning character in Ginny Kelly … Read it by the fire one cold autumn night, then smugly recommend Nikki Baker to your friends.” — Deneuve
The four book series has sat at the top of Recommended Lesbian Fiction lists for years. Judith Markowitz, in The Gay Detective Novel: Lesbian and Gay Main Characters and Themes in Mystery Fiction, repeatedly turns to Baker’s series to develop her themes. And Megan Casey, author of many reviews and a bibliography of lesbian mysteries (ie. The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel), writes: “Nikki Baker is wildly underrated and underappreciated. Her books need to come out in new editions, including ebook editions. Give this book – and this series – a near-perfect rating.” ReQueered Tales to the rescue!
A Debut / A Lambda Literary Finalist
When businesswoman Virginia Kelly meets her old college chum Bev Johnson for drinks late one night, Bev confides that her lover, Kelsey, is seeing another woman. Ginny had picked up that gossip months ago, but she is shocked when the next morning’s papers report that Kelsey was found murdered behind the very bar where Ginny and Bev had met. Worried that her friend could be implicated, Ginny decides to track down Kelsey’s killer and contacts a lawyer, Susan Coogan. Susan takes an immediate, intense liking to Ginny, complicating Ginny’s relationship with her live-in lover. Meanwhile Ginny’s inquiries heat up when she learns the Feds suspected Kelsey of embezzling from her employer.
Interwoven into the narrative are observations on the intersectionality of being a woman, an African-American, and a lesbian in a “man’s” world of finance and life in general. This new edition features a foreword by the author.
In The Game
184 pgs • 978-1-951092-28-3 • $16.95
E-book is an Amazon Kindle Unlimited Exclusive
By night – the bars, the music, the sexual energy. By day – the beaches, the bay … basking in the sun and the scent of suntan lotion. And everywhere the women of Provincetown.
Among these women in the sun is Virginia Kelly, a woman of color, on vacation from the mostly white world of finance. Ginny has come to P-town with friend Naomi, and without lover Emily. They stay at Lavender House, a hotel for lesbians run by Sam, a woman with whom Naomi has had some dramatic history. Other inhabitants include Anya, who works for the inn; Joan, a writer and sometime guest; loud Barb and her quiet partner. And in P-town, Ginny is drawn to another woman. Then … murder shatters the vacation bliss. For among the people brushing up against Ginny and Naomi for these few sensual days is a ruthless killer. And a victim whose death will change the lives of Ginny and Naomi.
Nominated for Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, this new edition features a foreword by Ann Aptaker (Cantor Gold series).
The Lavender House Murder
232 pgs • 978-1-951092-29-0 • $16.95
E-book is an Amazon Kindle Unlimited Exclusive
A High School Reunion / A Corporate Buy-out
Lured to her midwest hometown for Christmas and a family reunion by a former flame, Virginia observes that nothing has changed. Her parents, still hoping a man will reclaim her from her lesbian path, do not see that she is in deep mourning for a man, who had meant a great deal to her and helped her accept her sexuality and identity, gay friend Emery Arkin, dead of AIDs before she even knew he was dying.
But at her high school reunion, the painful past of being an outcast nerd is transformed to a much different present where she is now one of the best looking and successful graduates to return. Rosalee, who had called and written Virginia begging her to come, is now indifferent but another former classmate now named Spike determinedly pursues Virginia. The marriage of a friend turns out not to be as idyllic as it first appears. And former English teacher Harry Hobart has lost his wife in a drowning. But she was not the last to die and Virginia has to fight to survive.
This new edition features a foreword by Cheryl A. Head (Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries).
Long Goodbyes
256 pgs • 978-1-951092-38-2 • $16.95
E-book is an Amazon Kindle Unlimited Exclusive
Tensions at the investment firm where Virginia Kelly toils are through the roof: a lucrative buy-out offer from a competing company has partners and associates at odds. Easy street? You have to be on “the” list. Then, during a companywide merger pitch, Whytebread’s CEO Wes Winslow falls ill at the podium and dies that evening. Food poisoning? Or murder?
The entrance of police detective Cassandra Hope, an ex-girlfriend, puts Virginia in the middle of the investigation. If it’s murder, the deal falls through. Virginia sees it as her duty to help solve the crime. Suspects multiply: plenty of people were angry with the CEO, including a charmingly flirtatious golden boy with excellent golf scores, a tediously jealous wife, and a cohort of fringe employees who are too old, too gay, too brown, or too female to be taken seriously at the firm.
Cassandra wants the inside dirt and, though angered by her presumptuous demands, Virginia still can’t say no to anything Cassie wants. With a multi-million dollar payoff at stake, Virginia agrees to be the detective’s eyes and ears. But can Virginia trust anyone? Including rekindled flames for Cassandra?
The Ultimate Exit Strategy
276 pgs • 978-1-951092-53-5 • $16.95
E-book is an Amazon Kindle Unlimited Exclusive
