by Mary Bricker Jenkins
Jane Addams Branch

September 2022

Our WILPF sister Dorothy Van Soest knows a thing or two about the kinds of topics that call us to the WILPF community. We meet each other to confront the outrages of racism and poverty and war, and to share our longing for community, peace and even simple fairness. We know and embrace each other around these common causes but seldom get to know and delight in the tapestry of each other’s lives. Now Dorothy invites us in to explore more of our common ground in a manner both singular and unique: through her social justice mystery novels.

Dorothy Van Soest has written four novels, all published by Apprentice House, with another book on the way. Just Mercy (2018)was praised by Sr. Helen Prejean as “a must-read that teaches us about the true nature of justice.” In At the Center (2015), we meet unlikely sleuth Sylvia Jensen, whose investigation of a child’s death propels her to the juncture of personal responsibility and political defection. In the award-winning Death, Unchartered (2018), Sylvia Jensen must pick her way through the rubble of corruption and conflicting agendas to pursue a personally uncomfortable but compelling inquiry. In Nuclear Option (2020), Dorothy performs the acrobatic feat of yoking us empathically to unappealing characters— or perhaps she presents them during unappealing periods of their lives, as they confront our hidden and still lethal nuclear heritage.

Dorothy’s books are available through your local independent book store, online through IndieBound https://www.indiebound.orgor – if you must – through your favorite rapacious, union-busting, online corporate seller.

Visit Dorothy’s website at https://www.dorothyvansoest.com