cover image What’s the Matter with Mary Jane? An Epitome Apartments Mystery

What’s the Matter with Mary Jane? An Epitome Apartments Mystery

Candas Jane Dorsey. ECW, $15.95 trade paper (264p) ISBN 978-1-77041-556-0

At the start of Canadian author Dorsey’s quirky sequel to 2020’s The Adventures of Isabel, the nameless narrator, a former social worker in an unnamed Canadian city who helped investigate the murder of a sex worker in her previous outing, receives an unexpected visit from Priscilla Jane Gill, a university friend she hasn’t seen in 20 years. Pris, who has since become a renowned travel writer, has spent the last year recovering from being stabbed by a stalker who’s now in jail. She fears she’s being stalked again and wants to hire the narrator to find out whether this is in fact the case or she’s just being paranoid. A murder connected to a publishing event for Pris’s new book suggests she has plenty to be worried about. The convoluted plot, peppered with puns and footnotes, wends its way with many a digression (including on Pris’s dead cat, Micah, whom she had “taxidermied” at university) to a showdown with a bad guy and a startling revelation regarding Pris. Those with a taste for the offbeat will appreciate this one. Agent: Wayne Arthurson (Canada). (Oct.)