More Historical Fiction Than Mystery

Vera Kelly: Lost and Found by Rosalie Knecht

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This wasn’t quite what I expected, and it wasn’t as much about a murder mystery with Vera doing amateur sleuthing or the like as it was about her being a gay woman in the 70s and navigating her life as a gay woman with a relationship with another woman who had a harder time with her family and them accepting her and her way of life.
This was about Vera and Max going to visit Max’s parents, where there was chaos with her parents and their marriage ending. It was about whether and how Vera and Max were going to reveal themselves and their relationship to her parents, etc. This was also about how it was easier for them to just say they were friends and hide their relationship and true nature around certain people and in certain situations. It was also interesting yet strange to see the similarities and differences in how women and gays/homosexuality was viewed back then versus how it is now.
And once again, this story led to a woman being taken against her will and admitted into a hospital or mental institution of some sort for ‘sick people. I’ve now read 3 or 4 books this year relating to history and women being put in mental institutions because of reasons that are not related to them being sick and needing to be in a hospital the way the hospitals described it back then.
I was a bit disappointed in this story as I was expecting something fun and great, like other amateur sleuth stories I’ve read. It was a decent read with some interesting things and a good storyline, but I feel like it should have been identified differently, perhaps as a light mystery with more historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tin House for letting me read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.



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