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The Open Accounts of an Honesty Box

by

Julie Helean

Things are heating up in Easy, a Central Otago town. After lobbying unsuccessfully to get their desperately needed public toilet, the women of Easy give up on council, conspiring to build it themselves. There’s civic pride at stake, never mind the strained bladders. Luckily Jinx, a visitor in a campervan, has just the right credentials to get them started. 

When the town’s unofficial mayoress, Martha, traps her builder in town, she discovers that Jinx, aside from her non-traditional job, is a hard-to manage lesbian with a penchant for rule breaking of every kind. The fact that the building project proceeds without council permits, with an entrapped builder and using stolen materials, is just the start of the unfolding pandemonium.

Sawdust and road dust, half-baked construction plans hatched by local women in a Central Otago heat wave – it’s the perfect escape for Jinx, on the run from Auckland and her claustrophobic circle of friends.

This whimsical and delightfully contoured novel showcases – much like a pikelet at an A&P Show – rural New Zealand in all its jammy glory.