Ninth Life

This book fast-paced, well-written, and peopled with interesting characters. A thoroughly enjoyable read for folks who love mysteries, and this one is all the more satisfying because it takes on an important social issue: animal abuse. In addition to having crafted her story skilfully, the author handles language beautifully -- the book is full of delightful turns of phrase and striking imagery-- not what you'd expect in a quick reading mystery novel. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

In this Lambda Award winning first of the Caitlin Reece series, the wisecracking Victoria, British Columbia PI is called on to investigate the death of an operative placed in an illegal research lab by an animal advocacy group named Ninth Life. Feminist Bookstore News said of this book when it appeared in 1988: "A very accomplished first novel, distinguished by an elegant flair for description and an ovbious love of the language. This is a stunning first effort." I have to agree. This novel is head and shoulders above so many of the "women's mysteries" on the market -- it has a terrific heroine, great writing, and an important issue -- animal rights. Her secondary characters are terrific, too: her cats Repo and Jeoffrey, her Vietnamese friend Gray Ng, her mysterious computer hacker friend Francis the Ferrett, and her protege Lester. The Victoria locales are true-to-life: read all the books in her series