DIVINE VICTIM

Another lesbian mystery from Wings (She Came in a Flash, 1989, etc.), this concerning an unnamed narrator, an art historian who's accompanied her lover Marya to Montana to claim Marya's great-aunt Rebecca's estate—including hand-carved statues of female saints, long red hair stuffed into a hat box, a quattrocentro box (stolen), a priceless religious painting (also stolen), and diaries that reveal that Rebecca was, for a time, Sister Roberta Claire and shared a ``particular friendship'' with Sister Theophane. While Marya deals with the lawyers and goes rock-climbing, her lover fends off Helen, who claims to have nursed Rebecca and now wants a keepsake; nearly succumbs to noxious gas fumes; puzzles through secrets of Rebecca's past, and is haunted by secrets of her own- -particularly about a traumatic birthday spent in Italy with a former lover. After a visit with an elderly nun in California, and another visit from a very determined Helen, this tale of lesbian relationships past and present concludes with a murder charge instigated by the Italian government. The eerie menace of the beginning is diluted by too many diatribes against Catholicism and the too nutty character of Helen. But the intercutting of romances gone awry is nicely done and keeps one turning the pages—even when the plot runs into a few potholes.