Title: Everything You Have is Mine (#1 in the Lauren Laurano series) Author: Scoppettone, Sandra Published by: Little, Brown, 1991 ISBN: 0-316-77646-7 [hardcover, 261 pages]
Lauren Laurano makes her funny and suspenseful debut as a sleuth who must take on a rapist, a killer, a tangle of family relationships, her own fears, and New York City itself in order to solve several murders. Far from being the usual hard bitten toughie, Lauren is terrified of insects, computers, and blood; she's pretty, quirky, fashion-conscious -- and gay. For the past eleven years she's lived in the heart of Greenwich village with beautiful, warmhearted psychotherapist Kip Adams; they bicker playfully and enjoy the urbane company of friends and the heady, offbeat village life.But when Lauren's job becomes dangerous, they fight, and the peace is about to be rocked again by her latest case: she's been hired by an elegant, mysterious woman to find the rapist of her younger sister, Lake Huron. Violent sex soon turns to violent death, and it is up to Lauren to discover whether Lake's rapist and her murderer are one and the same. The search takes Lauren through a world of contemporary attachments, twisted familial relationships, sexuality, greed, betrayal, and death. Along the seamy trail of the killer, Lauren confronts fears both big and small, as well as the terrible fact that people, whether abusive or abused, often refuse to tell (or face) the truth.
Everything You Have is Mine is not only a riveting mystery; it is also a fresh, observant look at New York City in its modern failures and successes. Through the clear eyes of Lauren Laurano, we see the wretchedness of AIDS, homelessness, structural decay, and drug dealing, and the glamour of village bars, restaurants, bookstores, and brownstones. We see the city in light and in darkness, in all its fast-moving beauty, sleaziness, and intensity.
Return to Jay's West Hollywood Home Return to Mystery Send to Jay
