Sticky Fingers Written by Morgan Hunt
Sticky Fingers is the first in a series of lesbian mystery novels by Morgan Hunt. A semi-autopbiographical tale involving amateur sleuth Tess Camillo and her trials with breast cancer while on a case, Sticky Fingers is a quick, easy read, with whimsical plot twists and punny chapter titles like "Womb with No View."

Sticky Fingers is part "whodunnit" crime thriller, part lesbian inside joke and part guidebook for understanding and coping with breast cancer. Hunt manages to effectively weave all of these parts together into a kind of detective tapestry that doesn't feel hodgepodge or forced. The plot begins when Tess finds a snake in her bedroom, and another woman, Belle Farby, is found murdered by snake venom a short while later. The connection is too uncanny to ignore so Tess is put on the case with the help of ex-lover and detective Kari Dixon. Throw in a snake handler rapist, a gay Hopi phone psychic, his depressed bisexual herpetologist girlfriend and Tess's wannabe Martha Stewart platonic hasbien roommate and you've got the guest list for one of Louie Anderson's parties. And one whopper of a mystery case.

All the old school lesbian humor is in there, with requisite references to Dishwalla, Sheryl Crow, Joan Armatrading, Ellen Degeneres bumper stickers, Planet Out, softball, communicating with dogs, Bush bashing and of course what lesbian book would be complete without a healthy dose of processing. The most telling bout of processing takes place when Tess's hasbien roommate calls her out on getting absorbed in Belle's murder as a way of avoiding the trauma of breast cancer. It wouldn't surprise me if Morgan Hunt dedicated a book to her dog - that's the kind of lesbian humor she espouses. And it works, in the mystery genre especially, which relies on quippy associations and language loopholes. Although she tends to go a bit overboard on the patchouli, particularly when she refers to straight people as "heterosapiens" and when her metaphysically-minded friends promise to send her "orange energy" everyday until she heals. Albeit most of these references are tongue-in-cheek, I did feel at times as if I was being pummeled by flannel-coated copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

While some of the descriptions are doused with Velveeta, I have to give Hunt credit for her originality with metaphors and analogies. For instance, "Like Harry Potter jellybeans, she was bile bitter." And "Darlene looked like she was trying to read the Pledge of Allegiance in a bowl of alphabet soup." Also, the snakes in the novel aren't the only ones that are quick of tongue. When the San Diego Police Department thinks the murder is a hate crime and that lesbians are being specifically targeted by a man with feelings of inadequacy, Tess quips, "That should narrow it down to thirty or forty million."

All in all, Sticky Fingers is an enjoyable read, heavy on the granola but with memorable characters that you certainly want to root for in the end. The side plot of breast cancer survival is informative (there are even cancer resources listed on the book's final page) and Hunt employs enough self-deprecating humor to make it more like a real, human struggle and less like a weepy Lifetime mini-series.

For more information on author Morgan Hunt and Sticky Fingers, please visit morganhuntbooks.com

Anna is a freelance masochist who's seen almost every bad lesbian movie to date and secretly loves them all. You can contact her at banannarama01@yahoo.com