Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson

Yesterday I posted my review of Blood and Groom by Toronto author, Jill Edmondson. Tonight I post my review of her second book Dead Light District. Saturday there will be a post of Questions and Answers with Jill. I will end the Jill Edmondson weekend on Sunday with a post on the Questions and Answers with her. I repeat my encouragement from last night to come back tomorrow night for the Questions and Answers. They are as colourful as the author.

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18. – 577.) Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson – Sasha Jackson is back and her second adventure is a much better book. Unlike Blood and Groom Sasha, searching for a missing prostitute, is in a milieu better suited to her tough girl personality. A beautiful Mexican woman, Mary Carmen, has disappeared while on an out call and her madam, Candace, hires Sasha to find out what happened.

            I am learning more about the sex trade in Toronto in every book. In Blood and Groom it was telephone sex while this book examines prostitution in the 21^st Century from the grubby streets east of Yonge to a high end bordello. I thought about how Sara Paretsky puts a current social issue as the theme of V.I. Warshawski mysteries. While refusing to accept prostitution as an appropriate profession for women Sasha skirts the implications of her work foray into the sex trade as a phone sex operator.

            As Sasha starts pulling at the threads of information she learns Mary Carmen had been a hooker in Montreal before coming to Toronto. There is reason to fear for Mary Carmen’s safety. Her vicious pimp, Gaston, has come after his property.

            Sasha may be the only big city fictional investigator who does most of her investigating on foot. Sasha stays fit walking uptown, downtown and across town. I could feel the draining combination of July heat and humidity in Toronto’s concrete core as she walked the city.

            Trashily dressed and heavily made up, the remarks of attempted clients on a hot summer night, confirm Sasha has successfully gone undercover as a street call girl.

            With the book in first person narrative by Sasha I found the short first person comments of Mary Carmen made her character come alive. Mary Carmen’s painful past and ongoing desperate decisions are vividly expressed.

            Personally, Sasha enjoys time with girlfriends, Lindsay and Jessica. Looking for love, actually lusting for a man, she shies from renewing her relationship with Mick and finds herself attracted to Derek Armstrong, a well dressed, handsome, sexy lawyer. It was nice that a lawyer has become Sasha’s sex interest. Love may follow.

            The route to the solution could be enhanced but the plotting is more assured. I liked Sasha better in this book. She was wittier and a little less sarcastic while remaining as strong willed and stubborn. Sasha reminds me of Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich’s series. With the story improvement and the growth of Sasha’s character I am looking to the third in the series. (Apr. 2/11)