Harpies' Feast — Linda Morganstein

In Dante's Hell, suicide victims are transformed into dead trees that can still feel pain. The harpies, birds with women's faces, peck at their limbs. In Harpies' Feast, the second in the Alexis Pope mystery series, Alex plunges into a mystery exploring teenage suicide and the pain of teen bullying. Still grieving an unfortunate death, Alex befriends two theatre people visiting California wine country to work on a local production. Alex is drawn to the attractive lesbian playwright and grows protective of the teenage actress, the target of a group of mean local girls. The adolescent torment leads to perplexing disasters. In the search for answers, Alex confronts the glory and sting of relationships and the boundaries of sexual orientation.