What is Ellen Hart reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Ellen Hart, author of The Lost Women of Lost Lake.

Her entry begins:

I’m hoping my editor doesn’t see this. I’m working on a deadline and should be writing, but reading compels me like nothing else. Besides, I’m a great believer that writers need to read. The “life of the mind,” and all that. In fact, if I had to make a choice between giving up writing or giving up reading, it would be a struggle, but reading would win.

I’m currently teaching a creative writing class--An Introduction to Writing the Modern Mystery. I’ve assigned Dennis Lehane’s A Drink Before the War, because it is was his first book, (I want my students to see where the bar it set for first novels) and thus I find myself rereading it. What engaged me most in this novel is the fine use of language and the artful way the writer layers in the complicated lives of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennero, the two main characters. This is a story set on the mean streets of Boston, a...[read on]

About The Lost Women of Lost Lake, from the publisher:

Restaurateur and part-time P.I. Jane Lawless is taking some much-needed time off at her family’s lodge when her best friend, Cordelia, arrives with news that Tess, one of their good friends, has taken a nasty fall and needs their help with rehearsals for a play that is set to open in a week. When Tess isn’t on crutches, she helps run the Thunderhook Lodge, the premier resort on Lost Lake. And while she clearly needs Jane and Cordelia’s assistance, she isn’t exactly acting all that grateful.

A man who claims to be a journalist has arrived in Lost Lake with an old photograph and some questions for Tess that go back decades. His questions have put her on edge, and when he shows up peeking through her kitchen window, everyone else is right there with her. As beloved as Tess is, there are plenty of people who don’t care about any so-called journalist and are happy to protect her, but how far are they willing to take it? And when will they need answers to questions that that only Tess can provide?

In The Lost Women of Lost Lake—the most engrossing mystery yet from Lambda and Minnesota Book Award–winning author Ellen Hart—Jane’s only hope of protecting her friends from the secrets that are surfacing all around them is to uncover the whole truth before anyone else can.

Learn more about the book and author at Ellen Hart's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Lost Women of Lost Lake.

Writers Read: Ellen Hart.

--Marshal Zeringue