Barbara Simons and her friend Susan break into the apartment of Susan's ex-husband, Frank, to snoop around. They find his dead body and a stash of high-grade heroin that they have to take with them for safe keeping. Then Barbara's friend Joanne convinces her to pose as a lesbian hooker trying to raise money for her AIDS-stricken friends to help investigate a cigarette smuggling gang. Meanwhile, the fact that she's an Anglophone in French Montreal is doing nothing to raise her spirits. All told, in the space of a few days, she's lost her job, sold out a friend, tampered with evidence, convinced her neighbors she's a hooker, and probably lost the love of her life. Things are not going well for Barbara. "The multiple plot twists will leave readers' heads spinning." (Booklist)

Brash, bold and funny ("Susan Isaacs goes Canadian", said Kirkus Reviews) Barbara Simons returns in another murder investigation that proves that some people's relations are just as dangerous as Barbara's friends. From Old Montreal jazz clubs to the homes of a powerful WASP enclave, Simons tries to use her brains to figure out whodun in her old boss, rather than risk further damage to her clothing and body...not always with great success."An amusing first novel...Epstein has created a funny, appealing protagonist and friends..". — Publishers Weekly "This first novel is strongly recommended". — Library Journal "Epstein's barbed humor and Barbara's nineties-style anguish are bright spots..". — Booklist "A fresh new voice and a fresh new setting...a highly entertaining first novel. If you read mysteries for pure enjoyment, you will find it in Perilous Friends". — Cleveland Plain Dealer