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  • Lavender House by Lev Ac Rosen book cover
  • Lavender House by Lev Ac Rosen book cover
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Lavender House

by Lev Ac Rosen

A 1952 murder mystery behind Lavender House’s gates

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A 1952 murder mystery behind Lavender House’s gates

In 1952, private investigator Evander Mills is hired to investigate the death of Irene Lamontaine, whose family runs a famous soap empire. The estate offers its residents and staff a rare refuge where they can live openly as queer people, but its guarded privacy also keeps outsiders at a distance. As Andy investigates, family loyalties, jealousy, and concealed truths complicate the case. The mystery brings together a closed-circle setting and the pressures of a world where being queer is criminalized, making Lavender House both a murder investigation and a story about the limits of safety behind a protected boundary.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in historical mysteries set in 1950s America.
  • Readers seeking queer characters and themes of privacy, safety, and belonging.
  • Readers who enjoy murder investigations involving a family and a closely guarded estate.

Themes

Queer identity and communityPrivacy and safetyFamily secrets and jealousyCriminalization and social exclusion

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A "Best Of" Book From: Amazon * Buzzfeed * Rainbow Reading * Library Journal * CrimeReads * BookPage * Book Riot * Autostraddle

A delicious story from a new voice in suspense, Lev AC Rosen's Lavender House is Knives Out with a queer historical twist.

Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene's recipes for her signature scents are a well guarded secret--but it's not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they've needed to keep others out. And now they're worried they're keeping a murderer in.

Irene's widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept--his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand.

Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He's seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn't extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy--and Irene's death is only the beginning.

When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can't lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.

Dive into the full Evander Mills series:

Lavender House
The Bell in the Fog
Rough Pages

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