Precious

Meet Precious ? a burned-out, boozy journalist-cum-amateur-sleuth with an embarrassing nickname. He's the hero of Douglas Glover's hilariously suspenseful first novel. A brilliant send-up of the murder mystery genre, Precious was a finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1984 and sold out its first and only print run in just one month. Now, mystery lovers and fans of Glover's later fiction can enjoy this witty post-modern detective tale, which The Globe and Mail called ?a jolly Canadian extravaganza.? After three failed marriages and a stint in a Greek jail, Precious Elliott is ready for Dullsville. A job as woman's page editor for the Ockenden Star-Leader seems like just the ticket ?that is, until Rose Oxley, the town gossip, winds up dead with a pair of scissors lodged in her chest. Inviting comparisons with the work of Ross Macdonald and Jasper Fforde, Precious deftly combines a satisfying mystery plot with an ingenious literary parody.