"Canyon Ladies," by Sarah M. Chen, in Sisters in Crime Los Angeles presents LAdies Night, edited by Naomi Hirahara, Kate Thornton, and Jeri Westerson, Down and Out Books, 2015.
Before we get to the main order of business, may I grumble a bit? No one has ever been able to stop me before, so I guess I can.
This is always an awkward time of year for me. I have run out of paper magazines to review. That means I either have to buy paper copies of anthologies or get e-versions and in that case I need to drag my iPad to work to read them on my lunch hour. Yeah, poor me.
None of this is a complaint about this book, which I am enjoying. In fact, I am grateful to SIC-LA for publishing over the summer. So many anthologies come out in late fall. Just in time for Christmas shopping, sure, but a real bummer for people trying to finish their reviews of 2015 before 2016.
Okay. Kvetch over.
Speaking of kvetching, Chen's narrator has a reason or two to complain. Shelby's husband has been caught in dirty business dealings and, although he was miraculously (and suspiciously) acquitted, the social world of Laurel Canyon has not forgiven him. His wife, innocent of any wrong-doing, is a social pariah.
Shelby's having a hard time coping. "I looked in the mirror as I washed my hands, and shame, wearing last season's bathing suit, stared back at me. I bet this is how the fat girl in school felt like every day."
But she a plan for vengeance. The question is: on whom, exactly?
