Bad Attitudes — Agnes Owens

Bad Attitudes is a wickedly dark tale of Scottish council housing and murder. This first of two novellas also boasts a missing person, a lethally nosy neighbour, an extra-marital affair, a lusty councillor and a new housing law for tinkers. Who but Agnes Owens could concoct such a delicious brew of dour hilarity and then follow it with an unforgettable party? In Jen's Party, soon-to-be fifteen-year-old Jen immediately regrets agreeing to her crazy Aunt Belle's plan for a birthday party which involves, among other notions, flirting with the town's entire male population. With a perfectly tuned ear for the droll and the deadly, Owens can spin a tale of domestic mayhem that is at once disarmingly tense and movingly human.