Books like Calendar Girl

This Mask Noir title from the literary Serpent's Tail imprint has been sat in a pile of books I've intended to read for about half a decade and very nearly got donated to a book sale last week until I realised that it was written by THE Stella Duffy, was in fact a British feminist lesbian mystery novel written in the mid 90s and really sounded like the kind of book I should be reading after all. And yes, it served its purpose by being something to read at those times when the doorstop of the next Neal Stephenson book I was/am still reading was not appropriate to read, such as bedtime, but it was so damned good that I actually put down the Baroque book and then stayed up to finish it. This really shouldn't surprise anyone even vaguely familiar with the quality of Duffy's literary work, and I'm not talking about the kind of genre bollocks that the literary John Banville churns out as Benjamin Black either, Calendar Girl has a very interesting protagonist or three and a compelling narrative voice that drags you in to the mystery of September and The Girl With the Kelly McGillis body and spins a (forgive the colloquialism, I've been immersing myself in my adopted Aussie culture of late) ripping yarn filled with psychological insights, hot sex and strong female friendships. AND I just discovered there's four more of them. Happy days.