LADIES' NIGHT

by Elisabeth Bowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1988

The first of a projected International Women's Crime Series (see Peterzen below), this one featuring Vancouver P.I. Meg Lacey--whose rape led to Akido lessons, divorce, her new career, and quasi-self-reliance (with monetary assists from naturalist boyfriend Tom). Here, Meg is hired to find teen runaway Alison Chase, whose fiancÉ Danny Haswell owns Kinky's, a Chippendale's sort of place downstairs, with a kiddie-porn movie set-up upstairs and a prostitute/John hotel next door--where the ""girls"" are kept in line by Charles ""Caesar"" Grice, a notorious drug-dealer pimp. Snooping with her friend Johanna--an amazonian-sized lesbian and ex-prostitute--Meg connects with Haswell's assistant Salal, whose brother was killed by Caesar. Salal offers to set up Haswell and Caesar; Meg informs the police, and when Menzies and his cops raid the place, they find drugs, porno stuff, junkie prostitutes, Haswell, and Caesar--with his throat slit. Whodunit? The cops intimidate Meg with tails and interrogations, but she refuses to reveal her informant. Finally, months later, Menzies gives up on the murder, just as Johanna's lover bumps into Meg, and brings her to Johanna's halfway house, a ""clean"" house where teen-aged street kids can stay. Salal, now clean of drugs herself, swears she didn't kill Caesar. Meg doesn't quite ask Johanna whether she can say the same, and they tentatively rekindle their friendship. Grim, gritty, and effective, with levity provided by Meg's other case--a reuniting of elderly Portuguese twin brothers, who insist she has intuition because she's a woman. Nicely developed characters, and Johanna is as evocatively mysterious as Robert Parker's Hawk.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Seal Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION