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Book Cover for: Vera Kelly in Not a Mystery, Rosalie Knecht

Vera Kelly in Not a Mystery

Rosalie Knecht

Reader Score

79%

79% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 7 reviews on

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When ex-CIA agent Vera Kelly loses her job and her girlfriend in a single day, she reluctantly goes into business as a private detective. Heartbroken and cash-strapped, she takes a case that dredges up dark memories and attracts dangerous characters from across the Cold War landscape. Before it's over, she'll chase a lost child through foster care and follow a trail of Dominican exiles to the Caribbean. Forever looking over her shoulder, she nearly misses what's right in front of her: her own desire for home, connection, and a new romance at the local bar.

In this exciting second installment of the Vera Kelly series, Rosalie Knecht challenges and deepens the Vera we love: a woman of sparkling wit, deep moral fiber, and martini-dry humor who knows how to follow a case even as she struggles to follow her heart.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
  • Publish Date: May 28th, 2021
  • Pages: NA
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.60in - 5.70in - 0.80in - 1.00lb
  • EAN: 9781432887025
  • Categories: Mystery & Detective - HistoricalLGBTQ+ - Bisexual

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Readers will be thrilled by Vera Kelly's return. A worthy and welcome continuation of a subversive series.
Knecht's writing is evocative and spare, stylish and brooding, making this mystery series compulsively readable and offering a refreshing spin on atmospheric noir with a compelling queer historical frame.
Snappy, gritty, and engaging.
With Vera Kelly, Rosalie Knecht has resurrected the detective novel for the 21st century. Sharp, self-possessed, and with a nuanced, meaningful knowledge of realities and histories well beyond her own, Kelly's take on who's lying and why makes for riveting reading in every scene. I tore through this book. More Vera Kelly, please.--Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew
Gripping, magnificently written . . . This is a cool, strolling boulevardier of a book, worldly, wry, unrushed but never slow, which casts its gaze upon the middle of the last century and forces us to consider how it might be failing us still.--The New York Times Book Review, on Who Is Vera Kelly?
Forget about 007. This heroine has her own brand of spycraft...--The Washington Post, on Who Is Vera Kelly?
Knecht's novel is a slow-burn espionage thriller, a complex treatment of queer identity, and an immersive period piece all rolled into one delectable page-turner . . . Vera Kelly introduces a fascinating new spy to literature's mystery canon.--Entertainment Weekly, on Who Is Vera Kelly?
A splendid genre-pushing thriller . . . A fractured coming-out in the repressive '50s primed Vera for a life of deception?but in Knecht's expert hands she's smart and complicated, yearning for connection in a tumultuous world."--People, on Who Is Vera Kelly?
Thanks to Rosalie Knecht's clever, hilarious writing, you'll find yourself wanting everyone you know to read it so that you can discuss together the wholly original, brilliantly subversive character that is Vera Kelly.--NYLON, on Who Is Vera Kelly?
Sexy, sad and stylish.
Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery is an intricate mystery featuring love, corruption, and a charming and capable heroine.
Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery is the perfect sequel, because it's even better than the first book. . . . Reader, you will love this one. Don't walk. Run.