Damn Straight — Elizabeth Sims

After her narrow brush with death in Holy Hell, you would think Lillian Byrd would have learned to keep her head down, but when a friend in crisis calls from Palm Springs, Lillian jumps on a plane and wings her way from Detroit to California and danger. It's the weekend of the Dinah Shore golf tournament, the wildest women's sporting event in the world, when thousands of lesbians from around the country descend on the small desert town of Rancho Mirage and take over.

At a pre-championship party, a capsized tray of champagne serves to introduce Lillian to a top LPGA star, and Lillian leaps into a sizzling romance without a second thought. But her superstar athlete has a secret: Someone is quietly terrorizing her. Lillian, eager to help, goes undercover as a high-profile reporter, an unhinged nun and a professional caddie while uncovering disturbing layer after layer of her lover's past. Who is the stalker? The lickspittle agent? The fierce rival? The alcoholic mother? Finally, with violence erupting at every turn, Lillian uncovers her lover's final horrifying secret. And it is not at all what she thought. Once again, Elizabeth Sims has crafted a nail-biting thriller, featuring her oh-so-human amateur detective, that sizzles and zings and has readers laughing through their shivers. This book won a Lambda Literary Award (2003).