Quirky, Eccentric…
A quirky, eccentric, original and unashamedly fun mystery with a feisty heroine who knows no bounds. A comic caper which knows no extremes. Brimming with good humour, lashings of satire and dry wit. A perfectly plotted mystery with a sharp edge narrative and quick fire dialogue.

The main thing I really enjoyed about this book was the different characters and their personalities, they are bright, sassy and definitely kept me intrigued throughout the book. The Adventures of Isabel is written in a unique style which I've never seen before, and i have to say it did loose me in the beginning. However the pace did pick up and I found myself to enjoy the book a lot more.

The characters are well formed and very diverse, which added to the quirky quality I found this book had. Although erratic at times and hard to keep up with - the premise and ideas surrounding the mysteries had a flare of dramatics.

I recommend this for someone looking to delve deep into a snappy and different kind of book.

Candas Jane Dorsey
“The adventures of Isabel”

ARC from @pushkin_press via @netgalley

This is a classic murder mystery story, but with a modern twist, an inclusive gallery of characters and lots of humor🕵️

The unnamed narrator in this book lives a quite life with her moody cat Bunnywit until her friend Hep suddenly comes knocking.
Her granddaughter Maddy has been murdered, Maddy was a sex worker, so Hep is afraid that the police will leave her murder unresolved.
Our narrator was fired from her job as a social worker because of her ambisexuality and quickly agrees to help Hep find out what happened to Maddy.

In their search for answers our narrator and Hep encounter drug lords and far right religious groups, and get tangled into the Canadian criminal underworld.

It took me a while to get into the story, but once I got used to Dorsey’s writing style I found myself very entertained by the characters and dark humor in this book, and of course by Bunnywith and her weird obsession with boots❤️

A perfect choice if you’re looking for crime without the gore but with lots of fun!

It's funny, quirky and quite entertaining. Unfortunately I didn't like the style of writing and the story didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Adventures of Isabel was an interesting read for me. The author uses the first person narration with our main character and third person narration with everyone else. That did take me a while to get used to.
The writing is simple and easy to follow along with which makes it a quick read. I love the short chapters too.
The characters are eccentric. Each with a distinct, different, personality which made it easy to keep up without any confusion.
I did struggle with getting into the book at first, and struggled with the first few pages as I got the feeling of the setting. It also felt like the plot was lost in all the action and the murder mystery was forgotten. The pacing was alright though it does go up and down.

At the end, I was glad that I got to read the book. It’s a fun filled, interesting detective mystery.

This is a tough book to review, as I’m still not sure what I thought. It’s so different to anything I’ve read before. It’s definitely original and manages to combine the conventions of cosy crime with the mean streets of noir fiction. There’s very little in the way of guts and gore or police procedure but there’s oodles of tough guys, drug cartels and violent far right religious groups.

Dorsey has a unique writing style too. It took me a while to get used to, but I did start to enjoy the way our unnamed, unconventional, ambisexual narrator, tells the story of her unexpected turn into the role of hardboiled detective, in a consistently snarky, quirky and sarcastic style.

As an unemployed social worker, who was forced out of her last job due to her sexuality (illegal, but hard to prove), she understands the corrupt side of society and cares about silenced voices.

When she’s approached by her very cool friend, Hep, to help solve her granddaughter’s murder, she’s reluctant to get involved. Hep believes that as Maddy was a sex worker, her murder is unlikely to get the police’s full attention. However, it’s mostly her lack of a job that convinces the narrator to take the case.

The investigation forces her to explore the underbelly of the city; coming across many unsavoury characters and into harm’s way on several occasions. However, she makes some friends along the way. When it seems the corruption leads to the city’s social elite and powerful religious groups, the friends realise they will have to work together to bring down the bad guys.

I liked the diverse representation in this novel. My favourite supporting characters were; Jian, a homeless, Chinese gymnast; deeply religious, Thel, who realises that her church has a very different take on Christian values to her own; and of course Bunnywit, the boot-loving feline sidekick.

I did enjoy this unusual novel. The more I read, the more it became a page turner. The humour definitely grew on me, although I think a few of the cultural references flew over my head. I’ll be interested to see what happens to the gang in future instalments.

This book was so quirky, a little crazy at times and full of diverse characters that I completely fell in love with!

Written mainly in first person I was drawn in immediately from the very first page with the unnamed narrator even addressing us as the reader at times. It felt at times like I was a part of this mixed set up of characters as we try to solve this crime together.

Whilst ultimately I would label this as a murder / mystery it was definitely the characters that carried this and made me not want to stop reading. They’re all so completely different, with differing opinions and views (especially ultra religious Thelma) yet somehow all come together to form this group of crime fighting heroes – even the cat Bunnywit had a larger than life personality!

Not only was the crime they were solving interesting, with plenty of twists and turns along the way but the fact that no one really took themselves too seriously really had me laughing at parts. Our unnamed social worker who is at the heart of the story, despite not warming to her at first, really blossomed throughout with her witty one liners and sarcasm.

Overall if you want a murder mystery that is different from the normal, funny and full of diverse characters including a drag queen or two then add this to your list right now! I’m very much looking forward to reading more of this series.

I feel this is going to be a marmite kind of book. I had high hopes after reading the blurb, it sounded quirky, fun and the right side of bizarre.

The chapters are structured using a Ogden Nash poem (The Adventures of Isabel) which provided an unusual format I have not seen previously and admittedly enjoyed and it does attempt to include a diverse spectrum of sexualities across its characters... more about this later.

Alas I think for me personally it was too much and I struggled not only to connect with our protagonist but follow a lot of the narrative.

It was so fast paced it felt at times manic and disjointed. The first half of the book I was confused trying desperately to cling on via fingertips to the story with a vast number of complicated characters and side stories doing their best to make me lose my grip.

By the second half when I had grown accustomed to who everyone was and how they all linked my enjoyment increased and I was invested enough to want to see it through to the end, unfortunately at no point was I super excited to keep reading.

It was also disappointing for a book promising inclusiveness and diverse representation to see some potentially harmful language and descriptions included. Some of these are linked into the story and with context could be explained however there are other which seem to go completely unchecked and left me feeling uncomfortable.

It is rare for me to post such a negative review and I would love to hear what others thought as I can see many people loving this one, a quick scan of other reviews proves just this.

⭐️ 2.5 ⭐️
Rounded up to 3 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Unfortunately not the book for me.

Candas Jane Dorsey has an interesting, individual writing style, whilst mostly enjoyable, I did find it slightly erratic and jarring. I also had difficulty with some of the narrative and terminology/expressions used; on more than one occasion I had absolutely no idea what the author was saying.

I liked the diverse, well-written characters, but I wasn’t really invested in their story and sadly it just fell a little flat for me.

Let me introduce you to Isabel, a 23-year-old “involuntarily retired”, ambisexual social worker with a cat called Bunnywit. Along with a cast of lively characters Isabel is tasked to solve the murder of Maddy, a teenage prostitute and drug addict. There’s only one snag – our main protagonist has no clue how to manage her own life, even less how to solve a crime. What ensues is a rollicking, no holds barred account of her trying to make sense of life while tracking down a potential killer.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/the-adventures-of-isabel-candas-jane-dorsey/

The Adventures Of Isabel- Candas Jane Dorsey

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱'𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗱𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘅𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱-𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝘁, 𝗕𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆𝘄𝗶𝘁, 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝘅 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿 - 𝘀𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱. (𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗹𝗸𝘀.)
𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗿, 𝘀𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗺, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆, 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗴𝘂𝘆. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿...

This book was not my usual cup of tea but I was intrigued by the premise and wanted to take a look. I wasn’t quite sure at the beginning I have to say, the flow wasn’t always right for me, it jumped back and forward somewhat and some of it is a little bit nonsensical - almost like I was falling down a rabbit hole a la Alice at times and I felt it lost the thread of the mystery they were meant to be solving.

BUT, the characters are Sassy with a capital S. Our unnamed ambisexual ex-social worker protagonist is cool, funny and sarky! I love a dollop of sarcasm and it is there is spoonfuls. The secondary characters really made it for me, feisty Hep, funny, sweet Jian, cool Denis and Roger - just bless him! Probably my favourite is uber Christian Thel who goes on a bit of journey of discovery.

Yes, they do solve the mystery, along with a few random subplots and I can see this building as a series in future. I’m glad I read it, it pulled me out of my comfort zone and was full of fun and Sass!

Thanks to Pushkin Press, Tara McEvoy #netgalley for my copy of this book