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NAKED BRUNCH
by Sparkle Hayter
McClelland & Stewart, May 2002
312 pages
$32.99 CDN
ISBN: 0771037953


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Sparkle Hayter, author of the Robin Hudson series of tart noir mysteries, now takes off in a different direction in this standalone, set in a slightly odd, though recognizable, Manhattan and featuring the nicest girl in New York, Annie Engel. Annie has "always thought of herself as a Good Person, doing good deeds for other people, turning the other cheek, understanding and tolerating the nasty habits and quirks of others, putting others first most of the time...." Her self-confidence is severely shaken when she learns that she suffers from LMD, Lycanthropic Metamorphic Disorder, an inherited condition. Nice Annie Engel, the vegetarian who gives flies their freedom rather than swatting them, is, in short, a werewolf. She is no Lon Chaney in drag, however. Like other werewolves (and there are more than you might think), her killer instincts are aroused when she senses the profound evil in another's soul, so that every full moon provides the occasion for a certain degree of socially useful blood-letting. Once Annie's lycanthropic instincts are aroused (she goes off the pill), she rapidly finds herself part of a literal werewolf underground, headed by Dr Marco Potenza, devoted to making it possible for persons living with LMD to lead relatively normal lives. But Potenza may not be the innocent philolycanthropist he appears and, anyway, Annie is having the best sex of her life with an outlaw werewolf named Jim.

Hayter has found a vehicle that allows her to combine her comic talent (she was once a standup comedian) with a sharp sense of social injustice and the resulting comic thriller, well, there's no other word for it, sparkles. It is not, however, really a mystery; in fact the only mystery about it is why its US publication will be delayed until next year. But you don't have to waitã order it from Canada ahead of the rush.

Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, July 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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