Winner of the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, Indie Fiction “If he had killed me tonight, he’d be sleeping like a baby in an hour. I should be scared by that thought, but mostly I’m angry. Not stomp-your-foot angry. Get even angry. Put a knife in his gut and turn it angry.” A beautiful young transwoman is brutally murdered. The media looks on blindly, the police go through the … motions, but the victim’s hairdresser goes ballistic. Bobbi Logan is so outraged by these events that she commits two bold and courageous acts: She comes out as a transwoman herself, sending her career as a hair stylist into a gut-wrenching tailspin, and she begins searching for her friend’s murderer, an investigation that brings her into the vicious web of a powerful, seductive predator who is as charming as he is ruthless. Originally published under the title Coming Out Can Be Murder, the book tells the chilling story of revenge when a suspected killer lives beyond the reach of the law. Bobbi Logan’s bruising search for truth and justice takes her into the pulsating streets of Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood, the colorful world of high-end hair styling, and the city’s vibrant transgender community. Fast-paced and unsparing in hard details, Transition to Murder is a fresh, original portrayal of the life of a transwoman who is searching to discover her own “self” even as she searches for a killer. Renee James is an award-winning journalist, as well as a writer, editor and licensed cosmetologist. She has been active in the Chicago transgender community for many years.
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Completely out of the box, this book is a throat-punch of incredible. So much heart and dept is woven through these pages as the author takes the reader on a lustful, violent, dark journey through Chicago’s transgender community and into and ending that may not be what the reader wants, but is definitely what the reader needs. Each book in this series grows more intense as the heroine becomes more skilled and confident. Incredible series by an underrated writer that I hope to hear more from in the future.
Renee Jame’s brilliant Bobbi Logan series will truly put you into the shoes of the transgender experience in Chicago. The experience is deep, heartfelt, brutally honest, and evoke a myriad of emotions in the reader. Joy, excitement, sympathy, fear, anger, sadness, hope, empathy, love, awe, inspiration… I could go on and on about the emotions it evoked in me!
I can completely envision this intense series into a fantastic movie or television series. These books are extremely important in understanding the transgender issues that have been and are at hand. It may be shocking for the reader, but it needs to be known these things can and do happen. And at this terrible time in our politically divided world, Bobbi Logan is a true heroine. Renee James is a true heroine. Her talented and poetic writing style engulfs the reader into a life-changing journey. She has enhanced my knowledge of the transgender experience and I am ever grateful.
The audience for these books does not need to read them in sequence. In my opinion, it creates a deeper bond between the reader and Bobbi Logan to read the series through, but it is not a must. Renee James is utterly brilliant in creating understanding of events, both past and present. The education she provides through her awe-inspiring writing is desperately needed in our world.
To the negative reviewers:
If you don’t like this series, odds are you are simply squeamish about brutally honest murder thrillers, or you sadly live with hate in your heart! If you are part of the latter group, I especially suggest you read the series from beginning to end and learn from it.
I highly recommend everyone to read the Bobbi Logan Series:
Book 1: Coming Out Can Be Murder was published in 2012. It featured Bobbi Logan, a transsexual heroine, and it introduced many non-trans people to what transgender life was like early in this century. It won awards from the Chicago Writers Association and ForeWord Reviews, and was republished in 2014 with a plot change as Transition to Murder.
Book 2: The second book in the series was issued by Oceanview Publishing in 2016. A Kind of Justice picked up Bobbi’s life five years later, in 2008 as she battled the Great Recession and a transphobic detective trying to pin a murder on her.
Book 3: Seven Suspects will be released on Oct. 3rd, 2017. I takes place another five years later, with Bobbi trying to mentor her pre-teen niece and find out who is stalking her and why.