THE ADVENTURES OF ISABEL

“Candas Jane Dorsey's terrific mysteries are what would happen if Raymond Chandler and Frank N. Furter collaborated on cozies and the heroine were a pansexual private detective with heart, smarts, and a T-shirt saying MASCARA IS THE NEW NOIR. There's female bonding, sex (lots of it), and a cat or two. You'll scream with laughter, you'll checkmark phrases. And then, if you're a nice person and love your friends, you'll put these books in their hands and insist they read them too.” — Sarah Smith, author of the New York Times Notable Book The Vanished Child “In The Adventures of Isabel, we see Candas Jane Dorsey obviously having as much fun writing as the reader will have reading. A little Hammett, a little Hiaasen, a little Lot 49, this is the first book in a series that demands to be read with writerly intention. Unlike Robbe-Grillet or Eco, Dorsey doesn't want to destroy the detective novel with her postmodern take on the form. She seeks instead to shake the reader out of submission and into a clearer vision and examination of the underpinnings of the genre — the real crime and grime and meanness of the streets on which it's set. The laughs are thrown in for free.” — Janice MacDonald, author of the Randy Craig Mystery series