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Under the Mink: A Novel [Paperback]

Lisa Davis
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 1 2001

New York City, 1949. At the Candy Box Club, three steps below the street, the show is about to begin. But in this club, the world is upside down. Emcee Blackie Cole is Blanche Cohen, the chorus line is led by a stunning dark-eyed boy named Titanic, and the only thing protecting the performers from the social reformers is Stevie, the kingpin of the mob's downtown operation, whose hand moves from the till to the pockets of the police. When a young gay man is murdered in the club, only Blackie cares enough to find out why. Richly detailed, Under the Mink is both a boldly entertaining picture of the lesbian and gay subculture of pre-stonewall New York, and a first class period mystery complete with gangsters, crooked cops, and notorious madams.

Lisa Davis's writing has appeared in Queer View Mirror 2, and Early Embraces II. among others. She lives in New York.


Product Details


Product Description

From Amazon

Devotees of the lesbian pulp romances of the '50s and '60s will want to sink into this smoky noir thriller set in Greenwich Village in the years just after World War II. Blackie Cole is a tuxedo-wearing butch whose soulful singing at the Candy Box, a Mafia-run nightclub, attracts a host of swooning regulars, as well as a lively mix of uptown types, from successful, secretly kiki actresses to rich gay men to straight couples out for a peep at the queers. None know that it's Blackie's bad luck in love that makes her songs so powerful. Her beautiful, hard-drinking lover, Renee, a stripper, has just moved out of Blackie's apartment and into an upscale brothel run by the nefarious Lucille. But between the mob on one side and the cops on the other, Blackie has more to worry about than her aching heart--especially when she stumbles on a corpse in the men's room of the Candy Box. The faults of this plucky first novel are simply the faults of the genre that it mimics: stock characters and overheated prose. But Blackie and her immediate circle are well drawn, and her dilemma is satisfyingly resolved.--Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

In the netherworld of Greenwich Village 1949, it's drag queens and hookers against mafiosi, crooked cops and other assorted thugs, in Lisa E. Davis's Under the Mink. When a gay man from a wealthy publishing family is murdered in the restroom of the Candy Box Club cabaret, drag king Blackie Cole gets caught in a web of danger and intrigue. Davis captures the decadence of New York's pre-Stonewall gay scene and the constant abuse that the men and women who comprised it were subjected to. The strength they find in one another while being scapegoated by the media, the police and just about everyone else is inspiring.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


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Customer Reviews

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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars better than your average butch Oct 11 2002
By gina
Format:Paperback
What's a drag kig to do when she finds a dead body in the bathroom? Torn between the mob, the cops, and deliciously different women, Blackie has a lot on her hands in this novel. The settings are impressively depicted, but the characters a bit stock. Overall, this one was worth waiting for, and I'm ready for another offering from this writer.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Lisa for your research! Mar 18 2002
Format:Paperback
So often, lesbian books are filled with adolescent cravings and sexual lust. This is a wonderful book that integrates lesbian sexuality with the reality of a specific time period. I loved the mystery and the history. I trusted the author in her research and I loved her ability to weave a tale. I think it has much to do with the author's research as well as her wonderful ability to write. We need more authors like this. Great talent is found here. Thank you for an interesting and informative read.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Under the pink Aug 19 2001
Format:Paperback
This thriller set in 1949's New York City stars a wild assortment of characters (heroes and lowlifes), and is a real page-turner. It centers mostly on Blackie Cole, a butch nightclub singer employed by the mafia, who discovers a dead man in the club. When the dead man's sister shows up, Blackie is torn between her growing desire for the uptown woman and her duty to her mob boss. And Blackie's ex-girlfriend isn't quite through with Blackie either. Through a series of mishaps, Blackie's mob boss thinks she's ratted him out, and targets her for elimination. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and found it rather intoxicating at times. I felt the story as a whole was diluted by the tidal wave of characters populating the novel, some of whom were throwaways lasting a page or so. Some of these details became distracting to me because they seemed unnecessary by the book's end. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend "Under the Mink" not only to lesbians in search of a new romantic thriller, but also to anyone searching for a well-written and involving historical novel. Lisa Davis is certainly a writer worth reading.
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