Keith Baker (3)

This was an excellent mystery. I was kept guessing right to the end.

Annie Welles is a police detective in Halifax. She has fairly recently been divorced and her ex-husband and his new wife have custody of her two sons. She hasn't dated since the breakup of her marriage although her police partner made sexual advances to her which she turned down. This soured their working relationship and Annie has been working with an older detective, Walter Flagg.

Prince William is due to visit Lunenburg to launch The Bluenoser III and John Taggart, a British journalist on the royalty beat is going to cover the visit. He is somewhat curious because his mother left Nova Scotia just prior to his birth and he has never visited. He knows nothing about his father as all his mother will tell him is that his father is dead.

Annie and John have a mutual friend who arranges for them to meet so Annie can give John some off-the-record information about security arrangements for the visit. When John's article is hatcheted by a jealous ex-lover Annie is called on the carpet for talking to him. She is given a desk job while her colleagues deal with two murders on one night. While in this desk job she speaks to a parole officer who is concerned that one of his clients, Aaron Gaunt, has missed an appointment. Aaron was in jail for 30 years for the vicious murder of his lover in Lunenburg but while there he got a university bachelor's and master's degree. He is not a typical excon and his disappearance is unusual. When Annie starts looking into it she realizes Gaunt was connected to at least one of the murder victims. And then she realizes that Gaunt bears a striking resemblance to John Taggart; in fact, she thinks Gaunt may be John's father.

Annie and John begin to work together to find Gaunt which also involves looking into the two murders. As they begin to discover more about the two victims they start to think Gaunt may have been falsely accused thirty years ago and the real killer may still be around trying to silence anyone who could discover his identity. Now this includes Annie and John. The final unveiling is tense and riveting.

There was lots of excellent background material in this novel. I've been in Lunenburg and Halifax and the South Shore and I thought Baker caught the location exactly. I intended to read this book for John Mutford's challenge as I thought it would do for the Nova Scotia mystery that I want to read for the challenge (I am planning on reading 13 mysteries set in each province and territory). However, as I read through this book the odd reference I.e. Alsatians instead of German Shepherds and trainers instead of runners made me suspect that Keith Baker perhaps was not Canadian. Sure enough, at the end he thanks good friends in Bedford for making their home available to him during his research. So, I think I will have to find another mystery set in Nova Scotia written by a Canadian but I don't regret reading this book and I'll be looking for more of Keith Baker's books.… (mer)

De vader van Jack McCallan, een vroegere Noord Ierse politieman komt bij een brand om het leven. Hij laat zijn zoon een onverwacht grote erfenis na. Als Jack antwoord probeert te krijgen op een aantal vragen, blijkt de kennis die hij verkrijgt dodelijk te zijn. Zijn speurtocht leidt naar twintig jaar oude moorden waar politiemensen bij betrokken waren en zijn, maar iedereen die hem meer zou kunnen vertellen wordt uit de weg geruimd. Jack heeft echter niet voor niets bij de SAS gediend en slaagt erin de waarheid te achterhalen. De schrijver plaatst zijn verhaal in de toekomst, als de Noord-Ierse 'Troubles' tot het verleden behoren. Hij laat zien dat de moorden en de haat uit het verleden niet zonder meer vergeten worden, al is er een politieke oplossing bereikt. Het verhaal komt wat traag op gang en het is voor de lezer moeilijk om in het verhaal te komen. De schrijver komt echter steeds beter op dreef, zodat er een meeslepend en spannend verhaal ontstaat met een behoorlijke dosis realisme. Baker heeft het Noord-Ierse geweld van dichtbij meegemaakt als journalist voor krant en omroep en weet waarover hij schrijft.… (mer)