A review by farahmendlesohn
The Adventures of Isabel by Candas Jane Dorsey

4.0

Candas is a personal friend so I'm biased.

But I do like a good cosy and this is unusual in that it's an urban cosy mystery among a small group of friends and acquaintances, written in noir voice with a fairy/warning tale structure*. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once I was used to it I really enjoyed it. It's unusual also in being very supportive of sex workers, immigrants etc etc.

I've been ploughing through Ovidia Yu's Singapore mysteries (both the historical and the contemporaries) and it strikes me that if you enjoy one you'll enjoy the other, because both are what you might call Modern Miss Marple ie they really think about what a modern Miss Marple type might be like and what kind of fictive kin community she might construct.

*I didn't know the Ogden Nash poem that makes up the headings. It's freaking adorable and all little girls/femmes should learn to recite it. https://allpoetry.com/Adventures-Of-Isabel