Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor

A mat-leave murder mystery, complete with post-partum physiotherapy and suspicious grocery store footage

Translated by Aleshia Jensen

Rebecca’s got an eight-month-old baby and a mystery to investigate! Late one summer night as she’s breastfeeding Lucie, she spots two men carrying something heavy into a white minivan. It’s probably nothing serious, but when Rebecca hears that a home health care provider named Eduardo Morales disappeared from the neighbourhood that very night, she puts her detective hat on and gets to work.

Over the course of the subsequent weeks, Rebecca juggles motherhood and detective work—alternating between unproductive visits with the Simard family, for whom the missing Eduardo worked, and tearful visits to potential daycares for Lucie. She faces down inconclusive interviews with evasive subjects and inconveniently timed diaper changes. Pascal Girard’s observational humor and perfect timing shine through each page, highlighting how Rebecca’s (over)confident, brash approach gets results, not just with the troublesome Simards but with everyone in her life.

Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor is a lighthearted maternity leave mystery that centers a new mother in all her postpartum glory.