Beaumont’s case with an up-and-coming ambitious partner focuses on a woman working at the local school board office who winds up dead — semi-clothed in a closet with a clergyman-turned-security guard and the hints of an affair.
What I Liked
The school board politics and the politics around the police station office are first-rate, and it is nice to see a positive side to the journalist character who constantly hounds J.P. A large cast of characters helps keep the story interesting.
What I Didn’t Like
The sub-plot is a bit obvious and while the cast of characters is good, it leaves a bit of a feel of happenstance rather than expert detecting.
Beaumont finds himself investigating the apparent murder of a little girl, five years old. When the investigation leads to the girl’s home, and the cult that her mother is part of, things start to get a little weird. Add in the fact that he is still getting to know his partner, and the introduction of a rich and beautiful stranger to J.P.’s social and professional life, and the story starts to get a little odd.
What I Liked
I liked the woman in the story, and her obsession with those who murder little children. She shows up at the funeral, and you can vividly picture her arrival from the excellent prose.
What I Didn’t Like
The bits with the journalist are a bit stale in this book in the series, and some of the “getting to know your partner” tension is simply boring. Unfortunately, too, the “cult” comes off rather comical without any real depth as to why people might have gravitated towards this life.
Jane Whitefield is happy in her new life as a suburban housewife. But then someone shows up at her door on the reservation, knowing that she used to be the-woman-who-makes-people-disappear. And this one needs to disappear — a young woman who worked for the mob, taking care of the house for an old man who was the mob’s moneyman with a photographic memory, keeping it all in his head. When the man escapes, and then gets whacked, Rita knows she needs help to disappear before the mafia finds her and wants her to tell the moneyman’s secrets — secrets only he knew. Jane doesn’t want to help, having left that life behind, but she has no real choice — the girl has come to her door, her real door, in her new life.
What I Liked
The plot deals with the mafia’s money, and their search for Jane. There is a strong sub-plot about the money, and while it is initially a little far-fetched, it takes the premise and breaks it down into manageable chunks that make it seem almost plausible.
What I Didn’t Like
Some of the story is pretty predictable — Rita is flaky, and you know she’s going to flake out on the group long before Jane realizes it, or at least, long before she admits it to herself. As well, there is a trigger for the initial premise that I figured out in the first few pages, and yet no one else ever figures it out in the book, leading to a surprise for certain people for no real apparent reason. Finally, there is a long series of circumstances that are either Jane simply driving around the country or a series of near-misses for the mafia spotting her that never feel particularly tense.
Detective Murdoch has family problems — his sister, a cloistered nun, is dying and he can’t even see her to really say goodbye, just through a screen. His drunk of a father is in jail convicted of murder and ready to hang, but proclaiming his innocence — so even though it’s been many years since they spoke, Murdoch tries to find out the truth of the death of his father’s acquaintance following a potentially rigged dog race.
What I Liked
This is the best one yet in the series, although perhaps the historical features are not as pronounced in favour of telling a good tale. The storyline takes place for the most part outside of Toronto, and that also helps as it gives the story a unique atmosphere with lots of good local characters to investigate, all with their own dirty little secrets that clog up the investigation — cats and dogs, flirts and pervs. They’re all there. The social life of Murdoch heats up, although after two years of introspection, it comes with a bang, hardly reminiscent of the slow methodical progress before.
What I Didn’t Like
Very little bothered me in the story, although there is a confusing sub-plot about another crime and another investigator who is in the way of Murdoch’s investigation.
Constable Oliver Wicken is dead — the result of an apparent suicide while on duty. But Murdoch doesn’t buy it, so he starts to investigate only to find a woman who claims to have just jilted him, hence the suicide. He still isn’t satisfied, but with nothing else to go on, what can he do? Then another woman comes forward to say SHE was his girlfriend — a second one and neither had ever been mentioned to his mother with whom he lived!
What I Liked
I liked the investigation trail and the confusing leads. As well, a little more development on the social side for Murdoch is well-written.
What I Didn’t Like
The social side is a little too introspective, not enough activity, and the links to a sub-story are poorly done, hence the death is explained but not well-justified by the storyline. The treatment of some mentally unbalanced people is not particularly well done, and not just in terms of being politically incorrect.
