title: The Solitary Twist: A Nell Fury Mystery
author:  Elizabeth Pincus 
description: Readers of Pincus's ( The Two-Bit Tango ) second book could use a score card to keep track of all the characters, but despite the maze of friends and foes lesbian PI Nell Fury does a competent job of solving a complex mystery. Flying home to San Francisco, Nell meets lesbian Christa Lovett, who hires Nell to check the background on Philip Gold, fiance of Christa's ex-lover, Ellen Norway. Christa thinks Philip is after Ellen's money. Within a day, Philip, an arts commissioner, is accused of mismanaging funds, and Ellen is kidnapped. Christa, who is suspiciously shy of the police, asks Nell to find Ellen; consequently, Nell trails Philip to a questionable construction-site meeting; hours later he is killed. Nell is making headway on the case when Christa pays up, terminates the job and vanishes. Chasing down clues and pouncing on coincidences, Nell weaves together surprising events from past and present. While sleuthing, she is fairly good company--much better than she is when, boring as many a suburban mother, she dotes on Pinky, her poetry-writing, Day-Glo-haired daughter. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  _Summary_
  
  
  
  
  
  In September 1959 Pina’s got only one thing on her mind at the elite Albert
  
  
  Academy: four years of blissful rooming with her heartthrob Katie, pursuing
  
  
  their taboo relationship of the previous summer—only one thing until Pina
  
  
  stumbles over the lecherous Head Mistress Craney, lurking in the hall. Pina
  and
  
  
  Katie become obsessed with the blood-curdling game of cat and mouse Craney is
  
  
  craftily staging in every nook and cranny, from the fire escape to the
  
  
  bedclothes. Aided by quirky roommates, Pina struggles to elude Craney’s
  
  
  clutches and her sinister machinations when Craney calls Pina’s bluff in a
  
  
  salacious duel of wills. Must Pina submit?
  
  
  
  
  
  Will the scorned and unrequited Head Mistress expose Pina to her parents,
  
  
  and the eventuality of shock therapy?
  
  
  
  
  
  Who will banish whom?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  _Love and Lechery at Albert Academy  
  
  
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  _love and l