Liz Bugg’s Oranges and Lemons

Liz Bugg is the author of three mysteries featuring Toronto private investigator Calli Barrow: Red Rover, Oranges and Lemons, and Yellow Vengeance.

In the second novel in the series, Oranges and Lemons, Calli has taken up boxing to help her deal with the trauma she recently experienced, and her unexpected prowess leaves her feeling strong and competent.

An assignment that requires her to go undercover in an advertising agency (shades of Dorothy L. Sayers’s Murder Must Advertise) presents Calli with a wealth of potential suspects for the financial fraud that the agency’s owner believes may be taking place. The sudden death of a long-time employee the night before Calli begins at the agency does not seem auspicious.

Bugg conjures up Ontario locales with vivid detail, from the slightly down-at-heel office that Calli occupies in Kensington Market over a vintage clothing store to the sprawling networks of highways that connect Toronto to its suburbs and to the rest of southern Ontario. And her characters are diverse and interesting: Calli lives with her girlfriend Jess, who is a third-generation Chinese Canadian, and their cat Sherlock; a prominent local drag queen is one of Calli’s closest friends and occasional assistants.

My sense is that the mystery component in Bugg’s novels is often secondary to her development of a rich fictional depiction of queer community. There’s a bit of romance, as in many lesbian crime novels. And there’s the pleasure of spending time in Calli’s company. Bugg has crafted a wonderfully engaging and believable protagonist/narrator.

I haven’t located a lot of contemporary Canadian lesbian fiction, but as I’ve written about previously, there’s a fascinating tradition, from Eve Zaremba, Marsha Mildon, and Lauren Wright Douglas to Liz Bugg and … ? If readers come across someone I should be including here, please let me know.