No Good Deeds # Mabel

Never underestimate a woman with a walker

At eighty-five, Mabel knows three things for certain: she has the best legs in Westport, her hearing aid works better than she lets on, and bingo is not just a game — it's a lifeline.

So when a new bingo hall opens in town, promising bigger prizes and a charitable cause, Mabel is intrigued. She's even more intrigued by Frank, the quiet widower who sits in the back row with a tin of homemade biscuits and the kindest eyes she's seen since Arthur.

But Mabel didn't spend sixty years playing bingo without learning a thing or two about numbers. And the numbers at the new hall don't add up. Someone is skimming from the people who can least afford it — her friends, her neighbours, her community.

Nobody believes her. Her daughter thinks she's being dramatic. Her granddaughter tells her to leave it alone. Even her bingo rival thinks she's lost the plot.

Armed with nothing but a sharp mind, a stubborn streak, and a grudging alliance with her longtime nemesis Gloria, Mabel sets out to uncover the truth. What she finds will surprise everyone — except maybe Arthur, who always said she was the smartest woman in any room.

No good deed goes unpunished. But then again, nobody ever accused Mabel of playing it safe.