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Aud’s
unquestioning and unapologetic identity as a lesbian reflects
the greater acceptance of lesbians and gays in society in
general, and Griffith did not have any fears about submitting
The Blue Place to mainstream publishers in the
mid-1990s. She explains, “I honestly believe there's
very little prejudice in publishing. Perhaps there used
to be, but I haven't experienced it. Some individual editors
would, no doubt, squirm a little, but if that happened to
me I'd just approach another one. It's a business. If they
think you'll sell a zillion books, they'll publish it. When
I was starting out—with a science fiction novel with
lots of 'So what the fuck is gender, anyway?' underpinnings—many
writers told me to tone it down, otherwise I'd never get
published. ‘Watch me,’ I said.” The
Blue Place was published by Avon Books 1998, and its
sequel, Stay, was published by Nan A. Talese, a
division of Random House, the world’s largest commercial
publisher.
When
Claire McNab published her first Detective-Inspector
Carol Ashton mystery, Lessons in Murder,
in the late 1980s, she did not encounter any problems
either. Lessons in Murder was published in
the U.S. by the lesbian Naiad Press, and in Australia
it was issued by the mainstream publisher Allen &
Unwin.
It
helps that mysteries in general are more likely than
most other kinds of fiction to feature strong women
as main characters. Sara Paretsky’s private
eye V. I. Warshawski, Patricia Cornwell’s medical
examiner Kay Scarpetta, and Janet Evanovich’s
bounty hunter Stephanie Plum all kick butt while taking
down the bad guys—and they follow in a long
line of female sleuths going back to Dorothy Sayers’s
Harriet Vane. |
 |
One
of the most popular mystery series featuring a
lesbian detective, and one of the few published by a mainstream
publisher (Bantam Books), is the Kate Martinelli series
set in San Francisco—a series that is actually written
by a straight woman, Laurie R. King. King explained that
making Martinelli a lesbian was the result of a variety
of decisions that came about while writing the first novel
in the series, A Grave Talent, including a desire
to avoid a romance between the male and female detectives
assigned to the investigation—something that often
occurs in mystery novels.
King
notes, “Only later after it was published did I realize
how really odd this was, to have a straight woman writing
a gay character, how the potential for offense was there,
sort of like a white author writing a black character; it’s
a very touchy subject.”
While
some people may believe that only lesbians are qualified
to write about lesbians, King adds that “I’ve
had nothing but positive response from the lesbian community.”
Not
all writers feel that the mainstream publishing
industry is open to lesbian or gay fiction, however. Although
Lori Lake reported that she did not have any trouble finding
a publisher for her series featuring Minneapolis police
officer Dez Reilly, she also feels that “In my humble
opinion, the big publishers purposely ignore works featuring
gay detectives, no matter how well written.” The Dez
Reilly series is published by Regal Crest, a publisher that
focuses on gay and lesbian fiction.
Ellen
Hart also had immediate interest for her series featuring
restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless, but the interest
was from a small press. Hart offered, “I may have
had trouble had I gone to a New York press. Independent
presses led the way—created the market for lesbian
and gay mysteries—and then New York jumped on the
bandwagon, thinking that they could mine the vein. Alas,
I'm not sure the market is big enough for most NY presses.”
The Jane Lawless series is now published by St. Martin’s,
a mainstream publisher.
Katherine
V. Forrest’s well-known Kate Delafield series
was first published by Naiad in 1984, but mainstream publisher
Berkeley acquired the series with the fifth book, Liberty
Square, in 1993. Forrest told AfterEllen.com in July
that Berkeley picked up the series for its “crossover
potential,” and added that “I think the books
are very good opportunities to educate a straight audience
about what our issues are and why they matter and what’s
important to us.”
Several
authors suggested that Laurie R. King had been
discouraged by her New York publisher from writing additional
Kate Martinelli books because the market for novels featuring
lesbian detectives was too small. King herself has admitted
that her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series has been
so popular that she has been pressured to continue writing
those novels instead of her Kate Marinelli novels. But in
a sign that her publishers are not shying away from lesbian
detectives, King recently signed a contract with Bantam
to write the next Kate Martinelli novel, which will likely
be published sometime in 2006.
While
authors remain divided on mainstream publishing's willingness
to embrace lesbian detectives, it is clear by the number
of independent presses producing lesbian mysteries that
there is an audience for these novels. And while we wait
for more mainstream fiction with lesbian detectives like
King's, lesbian readers hungry for a good mystery can dive
into the backlist of books already available from authors
like Katherine V. Forrest, Lori Lake, Claire McNab, and
Nicola Griffith.
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