Book Release: Coming Out Can Be Murder by Renee James

Coming Out Can Be Murder


Author: Renee James
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Windy City Publishers (June 1, 2012)




Author's Blog
5-star book review 






Coming Out Can Be Murder is narrated by Bobbi Logan, a Chicago hairdresser who begins investigating the murder of a trans woman friend when neither the media nor the police seem to take notice of her brutal death.



Fighting the demons of her own gender transition, Bobbi navigates Chicago’s mysterious transgender underground to find the killer, only to become his next target.


Coming Out Can Be Murder combines a fast-moving plot with a unique character study, putting the reader in the mind and body of a sensitive, articulate transsexual woman as she begins living full time in her true gender. And Bobbi takes the reader on an extraordinary journey through Chicago’s vibrant transgender community and the city’s famous Boystown neighborhood, from its high-brow cafes to its pulsating dance clubs.


James, an active member of the Chicago transgender community, sketches a variety of characters in Coming Out, from a seductive transgender sex worker to a politically connected power broker whose smooth demeanor hides the vicious personality of a sexual predator.


Among the most memorable characters is Bobbi’s mentor, Cecelia, a brash, over-sized, larger-than-life trans woman who refuses to be intimidated by the disapproval of others.


“Cecelia is the trans woman people remember seeing in a restaurant or store,” says James. “She’s too tall and doesn’t look feminine, but she dresses well and has great composure. You don’t know anything about her because you don’t know how to start a conversation. In this book, you hear her talk and you get to know her.”


The other character most talked about by early reviewers is Betsy, Bobbi’s ex-wife. While many marriages involving transgender people end in hostility and acrimony, Betsy and Bobbi never quit loving each other after their divorce. Their love just takes a different form.


Bleue Benton, Manager of the Oak Park (IL) Public Library’s nationally acclaimed transgender literature collection, hails Coming Out Can Be Murder as “an important contribution to the field…a great story with beautiful self reflection.”


Adds Ms. Benton, “Renee James has written a groundbreaking mystery. Her smart, perceptive, and engaging heroine leads us through gender identity issues as she seeks understanding, acceptance, and justice. This page-turner is important and needs to be read.”


Coming Out Can Be Murder goes on sale June 1 in paper, Kindle and eBook formats. The book is available in book stores, through on-line services like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and wherever books are sold.

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