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exurbanis's review against another edition
3.0
This had a couple of elements that should have hooked me - Newfoundland setting, mystery, aboriginal detective - but it was not at all what I expected. It seemed written for middle-grade students - maybe if I'd known that going in . . .
miramichireader's review against another edition
4.0
A great start to what has become a good series of "cozy" Newfoundland mysteries occurring in the small village of Grand Banks.
canadianbookworm's review
4.0
This is the first in a new series featuring Sergeant Winston Windflower of the RCMP, stationed in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. Windflower is a native Cree who grew up on a remote reserve in northern Alberta. He has had several postings with increasing responsibility and has a good relationship with his staff, but not so good with the Inspector he reports to. Windflower is also in the early stages of a relationship with a local Newfoundland woman.
The case here is one that seems straightforward on the surface, but concerns emerge gradually. A local man, Elias Martin went out for his daily walk and never returned, his body found out on the path later. Seemingly a simple case of an older man, a widower, dead of a heart attack. But the autopsy causes concern, and Windflower begins an investigation. With his Inspector wanting him to close down the case quickly, Windflower is forced to move quickly to gather the evidence and track down those responsible. With interesting characters, and a story that leads beyond the small village of Grand Bank, this is an interesting introduction to a new mystery series.
The case here is one that seems straightforward on the surface, but concerns emerge gradually. A local man, Elias Martin went out for his daily walk and never returned, his body found out on the path later. Seemingly a simple case of an older man, a widower, dead of a heart attack. But the autopsy causes concern, and Windflower begins an investigation. With his Inspector wanting him to close down the case quickly, Windflower is forced to move quickly to gather the evidence and track down those responsible. With interesting characters, and a story that leads beyond the small village of Grand Bank, this is an interesting introduction to a new mystery series.
pgchuis's review
2.0
This is apparently the first in a series of police procedurals featuring Sgt Windflower, a First Nations officer, set in Newfoundland. I was disappointed in the standard of the writing (I really don't need to know exactly what he ate for every meal, and I already knew the ingredients of a salad nicoise), the characterization (which I found superficial - Windflower's girlfriend for example, seemed especially lacking in personality, apart from being very nice and liking him very much) and the level of suspense (there was never any sense of urgency and hardened criminals just caved in and confessed away merrily.) Windflower's approach to interrogation seemed to veer from asking benign questions and smiling sadly when people told him to get lost to denying people their legal rights, cutting off pain relief to an injured man and lying through his teeth. I got little sense of the location and his ethnicity seemed a bit of a device: that element had intrigued me the most, but, apart from smudging there was nothing really distinctive about how he operated.
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