Bonding by Faye Kellerman

Originally published 1989 in Sisters in Crime (ed. Marilyn Wallace), this edition 1995

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Collected in: Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories (ed. Bill Pronzini & Jack Adrian)

R18+

Legally restricted to audiences 18 years and older

(D, S, L, T)

Frequent Drug Use {R18+}

Sexual References {MA15+}

Frequent Coarse Language {M}

Themes {Crime, Family breakdown}

Representations

Gender:

First-person perspective of female protagonist.

Sex:

Primarily heterosexual; protagonist does sex work for kicks, enters relationship with her adoptive father. Strongly implied in prison she forms lesbian relationships for protection.

Race & Ethnicity:

Unmentioned, characters presumed white.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

No mention.

Awards

None found

Text

There is detection going on, but mostly outside the view of the story. I liked this one despite it being thematically similar to a lot of stories in this collection that I didn't like. Does leave me wondering if there are any stories in this collection that don't involve murder (can think of one very early one actually (Round Trip)).