This is a charming debut novel by Meyer, a teacher at a Toronto alternative school who lives in Kensington Market, that jewel of the city centre where you can get Nicaraguan coffee, Mexican pupusas, some of the best Quebec artisan cheeses, superb bread to serve it on and some exception vintage clothing to wear while serving it. Meyer managers to bring all that atmosphere into her story of murder and escape.
Abby Feria is a bicycle courier, a true free spirit. She's the thirty-something daughter of activists who fought the Toronto development wars, chaining themselves to buildings, ripping down hoardings. Now, her dad is out west sabotaging trees slated for the lumber trade and her mother has moved uptown so she's closer to her new processes for finding herself.
When a local drug dealer and pimp is killed near Feria's home, she's interested but not involved. Not, that is, until she finds a terrified young woman named Anita out in the alley, and it's clear Anita knows all about the murder. Even Abby doesn't know her reasons for hiding Anita, but she does, and that makes her part of the case. Also, her history, and that of her parents, are about to emerge as evidence.
Meyer makes a few first-novel bobbles. She rushes the plot and doesn't really make some aspects of the characters clear, but this is a solid debut. We expect Abby to peddle back in an even better book.
The Globe and Mail, Nov 11, 2006
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