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Carol Ashton Mysteries #4
Cop Out
A family business turns deadly�
Bryce Darcy, partner is a highly successful family business, has been brutally murdered. Charlotte Darcy, sister to the victim, has confessed. Open and shut case, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is informed. Not so, argues Carol’s aunt, friend to the Darcy family. She contends that Charlotte is mentally incompetent.
Carol reopens the investigation. Bus she is in personal crisis, close to burnout. Sick of the patriarchal framework of police work, sick of hiding her real lesbian self for the sake of her career.
Carol’s lover is not much help―Sybil has found her own direction in a dynamic women’s group. And the loyal Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke is distracted by his interest in the career of a promising female constable new to homicide.
Amid her own predicament, Carol finds herself embroiled in a family at war. She discovers that the dead man was a member of a support group for married gay men. And that the Darcy family, blessed with fame and fortune, seethes with ambiguous parentage, a disgraceful family swindle, fraud, infidelity, attempted drug poisoning. And among the warring Darcys is a pitiless murderer.
Bryce Darcy, partner is a highly successful family business, has been brutally murdered. Charlotte Darcy, sister to the victim, has confessed. Open and shut case, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is informed. Not so, argues Carol’s aunt, friend to the Darcy family. She contends that Charlotte is mentally incompetent.
Carol reopens the investigation. Bus she is in personal crisis, close to burnout. Sick of the patriarchal framework of police work, sick of hiding her real lesbian self for the sake of her career.
Carol’s lover is not much help―Sybil has found her own direction in a dynamic women’s group. And the loyal Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke is distracted by his interest in the career of a promising female constable new to homicide.
Amid her own predicament, Carol finds herself embroiled in a family at war. She discovers that the dead man was a member of a support group for married gay men. And that the Darcy family, blessed with fame and fortune, seethes with ambiguous parentage, a disgraceful family swindle, fraud, infidelity, attempted drug poisoning. And among the warring Darcys is a pitiless murderer.
204 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
5 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Claire McNab
47books51followersCLAIRE McNAB, 1940-2022
Claire McNab died on June 30, 2022, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She also wrote under her real name, Claire Carmichael, an outpouring of children's literature, textbooks, self-help books, and plays. She became (and remains to this day) a renowned author of children’s books in Australia.
Claire McNab is the pseudonym of . She was born in 1940 in Melbourne, Australia. While pursuing a career as a high school teacher in Sydney, she began her writing career with comedy plays and textbooks. She left teaching in the mid-eighties to become a full-time writer. In her native Australia she is known for her self-help and children's books. She moved to Los Angeles in 1994 after falling in love with an American woman, and now teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Writers' Extension Program. She is best known for three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She is the recipient of the 2006 Alice B. Medal.
From the Claire McNab has written over 50 books and is known in her native Australia for crime fiction, children's novels, picture books, self-help, and English textbooks. Her first mystery, Lessons in Murder, was published in the U.S. in 1988. Now a Los Angeles resident, she teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She is the author of three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on the finale of the Carol Ashton series, Lethal Care.
Claire McNab died on June 30, 2022, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She also wrote under her real name, Claire Carmichael, an outpouring of children's literature, textbooks, self-help books, and plays. She became (and remains to this day) a renowned author of children’s books in Australia.
Claire McNab is the pseudonym of . She was born in 1940 in Melbourne, Australia. While pursuing a career as a high school teacher in Sydney, she began her writing career with comedy plays and textbooks. She left teaching in the mid-eighties to become a full-time writer. In her native Australia she is known for her self-help and children's books. She moved to Los Angeles in 1994 after falling in love with an American woman, and now teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Writers' Extension Program. She is best known for three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She is the recipient of the 2006 Alice B. Medal.
From the Claire McNab has written over 50 books and is known in her native Australia for crime fiction, children's novels, picture books, self-help, and English textbooks. Her first mystery, Lessons in Murder, was published in the U.S. in 1988. Now a Los Angeles resident, she teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She is the author of three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on the finale of the Carol Ashton series, Lethal Care.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 21, 2022
Carol investigates a possible fratricide
SAPPHIC BOOK BINGO: classic, out of your comfort zone, not a romance, full-time writer (now deceased), established couple, non-US/UK setting, possibly other categories
A woman, Charlotte Darcy, was found in a dissociative fugue, holding a hammer, with her dead brother lying on the floor next to her. Did she do it, or was she set up for his murder? The woman's family had many secrets, money was involved, and they also happened to be friends with Carol's aunt, which complicated the case even more.
Sybil and Carol still had some trouble navigating their relationship, especially after she got involved in a local women's group with a woman that Carol disliked. Sgt Mark Bourke shared with Carol that he had a girlfriend, and the dynamic of their relationship changed a little bit. Mark was insistent that Charlotte was the killer, but Carol felt that something was off about that. As usual, Carol cracked the case, but it was still fun to read about life in the 1990s when the book was originally written.
SAPPHIC BOOK BINGO: classic, out of your comfort zone, not a romance, full-time writer (now deceased), established couple, non-US/UK setting, possibly other categories
A woman, Charlotte Darcy, was found in a dissociative fugue, holding a hammer, with her dead brother lying on the floor next to her. Did she do it, or was she set up for his murder? The woman's family had many secrets, money was involved, and they also happened to be friends with Carol's aunt, which complicated the case even more.
Sybil and Carol still had some trouble navigating their relationship, especially after she got involved in a local women's group with a woman that Carol disliked. Sgt Mark Bourke shared with Carol that he had a girlfriend, and the dynamic of their relationship changed a little bit. Mark was insistent that Charlotte was the killer, but Carol felt that something was off about that. As usual, Carol cracked the case, but it was still fun to read about life in the 1990s when the book was originally written.
March 7, 2023
Lesbian detective mystery wasn't a genre I knew existed until I found this book! I was genuinely surprised by the answer to the mystery and even though this was one of the later books in the series I felt like I was easily able to slip into the characters and their world. In conclusion, I really enjoyed this, it wasn't a masterpiece and there were actually two or three typos in the copy I read but it was an easy read and I will be keeping an eye out for other books in the series.
Read
June 28, 2023Apparently only one l read in the series and wasn’t even the first book.
September 19, 2023
This had a lot of interesting things.
November 3, 2023
Got more interesting towards the end. May up the rating later. Lots of suspects and red herrings, many secrets and more than one crime.
August 24, 2024
3.75 ⭐️But 0.75 of that is simply cause it’s a lesbian detective novel
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June 18, 2020While I was reading this book I was continually reminded of the Lily Allen song “Not Fair,� in which the singer, after listing many sterling qualities of her current boyfriend, goes on to say
The fact is, this novwl—and McNab in general—reads like a second-rate Katherine V. Forrest and her protagonist is a second-rate Kate Delafield. There are a number of parallels between Carol Ashton and Kate Delafield. Both are high-ranking police detectives in large cities and both are closet lesbians with live-in partners who are not. Carol is obviously the prettier of the two (McNab pounds her attractiveness home every few pages) but not as good a detective. While Kate’s methods of investigation are carefully and repeatedly documented in her cases, Carol just seems to go from one interview to another until she gets an epiphany. Here are some more parallels. Not only does Carol's relationship with Sybil—who is a murder suspect in book 1� mirror Kate's with Aimee, but they even have the same sexual preferences.
Cop Out is a family whodunit. The brother is murdered with the sister found over the body. The clues are well spaced and the pace of the novel itself is good. There is even a surprise clue near the end that delves into the homophobia within families. But again, I can’t imagine that this twist (and the murder itself) was not inspired by events in Forrest’s Murder at the Nightwood Bar. Forrest is, by the way, listed as the editor of this book.
But, getting back to Lily Allen, being a second-rate Katherine V. Forrest is not the end of the world. The book could have been better; it should, in fact, have been longer in order to flesh out aspects of the characters that were only mentioned quickly at the last minute (for instance, the murdered brother is described as having homosexual inclinations only, yet a bit of the plot hangs on the fact that he thinks that he has AIDS). Conversations are sometimes stiff and there are more descriptions than a normal yin-yang can hold. But a book can’t be expected to be perfect, can it? Lighten up, Lily.
Note: I read the first Naiad printing of this book.
Another Note: This review is included in my book along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
“There’s just one thing that’s getting in the way,I was able to find many sterling descriptions of McNab’s writing in some of the reviews and blurbs that speak of her popularity and expertise, but when I actually got into reading the book, there was certainly something missing. As Allen says, she didn’t “make me scream.� Certainly it was a letdown from the first novel in the series.
When we go up to bed you’re just no good, it’s such a shame.�
The fact is, this novwl—and McNab in general—reads like a second-rate Katherine V. Forrest and her protagonist is a second-rate Kate Delafield. There are a number of parallels between Carol Ashton and Kate Delafield. Both are high-ranking police detectives in large cities and both are closet lesbians with live-in partners who are not. Carol is obviously the prettier of the two (McNab pounds her attractiveness home every few pages) but not as good a detective. While Kate’s methods of investigation are carefully and repeatedly documented in her cases, Carol just seems to go from one interview to another until she gets an epiphany. Here are some more parallels. Not only does Carol's relationship with Sybil—who is a murder suspect in book 1� mirror Kate's with Aimee, but they even have the same sexual preferences.
Cop Out is a family whodunit. The brother is murdered with the sister found over the body. The clues are well spaced and the pace of the novel itself is good. There is even a surprise clue near the end that delves into the homophobia within families. But again, I can’t imagine that this twist (and the murder itself) was not inspired by events in Forrest’s Murder at the Nightwood Bar. Forrest is, by the way, listed as the editor of this book.
But, getting back to Lily Allen, being a second-rate Katherine V. Forrest is not the end of the world. The book could have been better; it should, in fact, have been longer in order to flesh out aspects of the characters that were only mentioned quickly at the last minute (for instance, the murdered brother is described as having homosexual inclinations only, yet a bit of the plot hangs on the fact that he thinks that he has AIDS). Conversations are sometimes stiff and there are more descriptions than a normal yin-yang can hold. But a book can’t be expected to be perfect, can it? Lighten up, Lily.
Note: I read the first Naiad printing of this book.
Another Note: This review is included in my book along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
October 9, 2011
#4 in the Detective Inspector Carol Ashton Mystery series finds Carol at an emotional impasse. Sybil, Carol's girlfriend, is sick of leading the closeted life that Carol insists upon and she begins to branch out to people in the community. Carol knows that being a lesbian is not a disease and she accepts who she is but she wants to keep her private life private, unfortunately this may cost her more than she bargained for. Pushing people away is so much easier than confiding in them and while she tries to keep her walls up she realizes that something has to give but will it be her career or her personal life. While investigating the murder of her Aunt's friend's son she comes across more hostility concerning homosexuality but was this the root cause of the murder. Bryce Darcy lay motionless in his sister Charlotte's studio, while Charlotte is sitting on a bench bloodied and the murder weapon just inches from her. Charlotte is completely out of it and is immediately taken to a family psychiatrist where it turns out that she has been taking amphetamines, but is it intentional or was she drugged to take the wrap for the murder. As the investigation deepens Carol must sort out the lies from the truth since everyone seems to be pointing fingers at someone else and discover the real killer so an innocent woman doesn't go to jail. All this is weighing on Carol as she is dealing with the pressures of her job, relationships, and a new detective in the station that her partner Mark Bourke is mentoring. Is it jealousy, stress, anger, or just unhappiness that make Carol question everything about her life and will she find the answers she needs through the people she knows or the solitude that she thinks she needs.
January 14, 2013
I have been very pleased with this series so far (having read the first four now). The main character is a somewhat closeted beautiful lesbian police detective in Australia and the books deal with her relationship, her feelings about wanting to stay closeted, and a case she is working on. In this one, she is trying to figure out who hammered in the back of the head of a man who was a loving son, husband, brother, and father ... as well as having a secret life. The murderer when revelaed is believable for having committed the crime and the explanation, although disturbing, is realistic. Strongly recommend this series to those interested in detective work and GLBT issues.
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