Ladies Night

Lisa Arsenault is a public-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

Meg Lacey is a divorced mother of two trying to make a living as a
private investigator in a one-woman office. Two apparently unconnected
cases involving teenage runaways lead her to investigate a murder in a
seedy nightclub which features “Ladies Night” (that is, free drinks
for female patrons—generally underage girls—with a view to making
them easy sexual prey for male customers). The nightclub is a front for
prostitution and child pornography, and during her investigation Meg
becomes involved in the police effort to shut it down.

The book is written in the first person and Meg is the lively, witty
narrator. What develops is a fast-paced, entertaining story, with some
good descriptive passages that illustrate Bowers’s writing skill
without diminishing the serious nature of the subject matter.

Bowers, obviously a student of human nature, has made Meg’s character
believable, interesting, and well rounded with well-defined personality
traits. Several of the other characters, however, are not quite so well
drawn, having a one-dimensional quality that somewhat hinders a full
appreciation of the novel.