Bottom Bracket: A Sumach Mystery

by Vivian Meyer

Activist bicycle courier Abby Faria likes living on the edge. But when a grisly crime disrupts life in her Kensington Market neighbourhood and a traumatized, bloodstained young woman appears on her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1894549589
• ISBN13: 9781894549585
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Sumach Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

jarringly intellectual and a bit unsubtle

Abby's life is fast paced. In the morning she cares for Anita, a recovering addict she is hiding, because Anita is in the country illegally and has just witnessed a murder. In the late night she siphons a hacker friend's know-how into interfering with high-end bullying in the neighbourhood. She also eeks out time to teach bike repair to kids at the community center, see her mom and occasionally humor a gentleman suitor. The later two get little time because both her mom and boyfriend are a bit high-brow for Abby and she always has important, secret, work to get back to besides. The plot ties together the plight of immigrant hooker, Anita, with Abby's father's jailing and the larger problem of gentrification of the market; all issues that Abby throws herself into, not blindly, but not cautiously either. "To know Abby is to worry about Abby," and the finale is far beyond what anyone imagined Abby would get herself into. Abby's routine and deviations from it are inspiring. In many ways, she is not obviously in a position to make big change, but she does. She is nosy, she takes just a little liberty with her bike messenger job, she does the hacking legwork despite having previously been a technophobe. She is clever, brave and really gives a damn. In the end, it is she, Anita, and a lawyer who save the day for themselves, and for justice in Kensington market. And Abby gets a new job to boot! The short length and fast pace made it feel like an enjoyable young adult read, but know that the content includes prostitution, heroine and violence. The main challenge to reading was that the language seemed jarringly intellectual, and a bit unsubtle. That is, aspects of various characters' lifestyles could have been implied more subtly, which also gave the story a young adult feel; hard characters, given a soft treatment. But by page 30, I barely noticed this anymore as I was vicariously engaged in life as a "Call Girl Courier".

An excellent first effort!

Vivian Meyer writes from experience. Her life work is in an alternative school in downtown Toronto, where she sees some of the poorest youth in the city. BOTTOM BRACKET is her first mystery. Kensington Market as depicted in the novel is her own home neighborhood. Abby Faria is a college graduate with an upscale mom. But she is living in Kensington Market in inner-city Toronto. She works as a bike courier, and bikes are her passion. She dates a lawyer, but their differing viewpoints make the relationship shallow at best. Still, Abby is fond of her guy and loves their great meals. But a murder that occurs almost on her doorstep and a frightened female illegal working as a hooker (with the accompanying heroin addiction) lands in Abby's lap. Abby gamely takes in Anita, finds help for her at a detox center, and seeks out an old family friend to help out. But what Abby doesn't know is that in the midst of the good people she knows in the neighborhood lurk crooked cops; lawyers on the take; and danger: "I hadn't paid any attention to the car parked face forward further up the lane. Savvy marketers often use that spot as a free parking space. I leaned my bike against my body and looked for my keys. When I heard the squeal of tires, I looked up disbelievingly as the car barrelled toward me. How could anyone drive so fast in the confines of the Market? With a lurch of the heart, I realized the car wasn't going to slow down." BOTTOM BRACKET is a compelling first novel, written with sensitivity and a matter-of-fact vision about the nature of poverty and the drug world. Abby Faria is a delightful heroine who stands still for no one and has a heart of gold. She is an obvious favorite within the confines of her world, and even her mother can't be angry at her. She is intelligent and hip, and her world quickly becomes the reader's as Meyer carefully leads us through Kensington Market's inhabitants, who form a funky co-op in watching out for one another. Plot and action co-exist with Abby's thoughts as she races her way through her obligations and the realization that she is acting mostly alone. Abby steals our hearts as she solves the murder; helps her friends; and even befriends of the villains. An excellent first effort! Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer