cover image The Adventures of Isabel: An Epitome Apartments Mystery

The Adventures of Isabel: An Epitome Apartments Mystery

Candas Jane Dorsey. ECW, $15.95 trade paper (220p) ISBN 978-1-77041-555-3

The nameless narrator of this exceptional series launch from SF author Dorsey (Black Wine), a droll mix of mystery and metafiction set in an unnamed Canadian city, is an out-of-work social worker whose unemployment benefits ran out weeks earlier. She’s composing a classified ad to offer her sexual services when she gets a call to meet her old friend Hep Pritchard at the morgue. Hep’s granddaughter, Madeline, has been murdered. For the police, Madeline is just another dead, druggie prostitute, and pursuing her killer is unlikely to be a priority. Hep asks the narrator to investigate. As a friend remarks, “Hep needs someone who can ask hard questions to people without offending them. Nothing like a registered social worker to do that on an hourly basis.” From hanging out on street corners with prostitutes to attending glittering high-society charity balls with billionaire fraudsters, the always game protagonist proves herself to be a first-rate detective. Fans of unconventional mysteries will be richly rewarded. Agent: Wayne Arthurson. (Oct.)