Scan barcode
cedewatson's review
5.0
This was a guessing game all the way to the end!! The suspense was killing me, trying to figure out who was the killer on every other page of this book. Loved the story telling, the flow and especially the conclusion where we exactly found out whodunit. This is my first book by this author and I look forward to more of Dan Sharp in the future. If you are looking a suspenseful read with not a whole lot of sex then I highly recommend this book.
katevane's review
3.0
This is the fourth novel in the series featuring Toronto private investigator Dan Sharp. In this book he is investigating the death of a prominent nightclub owner with alleged corrupt connections. Dan is hired by a lawyer to investigate the murder despite the ongoing criminal investigation. This adds a layer of complexity – Dan not only has to find the killer, he has to question the motivation of his client.
Dan, his client and the victim are all gay. The investigation takes Dan through Toronto’s different gay venues, quarters and cultures and his personal life becomes mixed up in the investigation. Many of the characters are also immigrants and so we see the city from their perspective. Dan is quite reflective on issues of social justice and the sometimes conflicting beliefs of minorities.
I have a couple of reservations about the book. Dan is an interesting character but he has a lot of views, on everything from traffic flow to the intergenerational housing crisis, and he sometimes expresses them at length when they don’t really add anything (you suspect these are the hobby horses of the author rather than the character).
I didn’t find the relationship between Dan and his teenage son convincing. Dan speaks to him like a school counsellor. There is no sense in their dialogue of the distance between what a person means, and what they say, when love or fear or just plain tiredness get in the way.
A potentially interesting subplot fizzled out rather quickly. And just as I was convinced that Dan was a sensitive and caring guy (albeit an opinionated one) he goes and checks his phone during a funeral!
Still, it’s very readable and engaging. I found some of the minor characters interesting and would have liked to know more about them. The story kept me guessing till the end. Okay, so a significant clue came from a minor character speaking in riddles, and the police were amazingly co-operative with Dan, but I’d say those are both permissible within the rules of the genre.
All in all, it’s an entertaining mystery with a strong contemporary setting.
*
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley
Dan, his client and the victim are all gay. The investigation takes Dan through Toronto’s different gay venues, quarters and cultures and his personal life becomes mixed up in the investigation. Many of the characters are also immigrants and so we see the city from their perspective. Dan is quite reflective on issues of social justice and the sometimes conflicting beliefs of minorities.
I have a couple of reservations about the book. Dan is an interesting character but he has a lot of views, on everything from traffic flow to the intergenerational housing crisis, and he sometimes expresses them at length when they don’t really add anything (you suspect these are the hobby horses of the author rather than the character).
I didn’t find the relationship between Dan and his teenage son convincing. Dan speaks to him like a school counsellor. There is no sense in their dialogue of the distance between what a person means, and what they say, when love or fear or just plain tiredness get in the way.
A potentially interesting subplot fizzled out rather quickly. And just as I was convinced that Dan was a sensitive and caring guy (albeit an opinionated one) he goes and checks his phone during a funeral!
Still, it’s very readable and engaging. I found some of the minor characters interesting and would have liked to know more about them. The story kept me guessing till the end. Okay, so a significant clue came from a minor character speaking in riddles, and the police were amazingly co-operative with Dan, but I’d say those are both permissible within the rules of the genre.
All in all, it’s an entertaining mystery with a strong contemporary setting.
*
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley
More...