A Stab at Life
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A series of murders in Montreal park near the Gursky Memorial Hospital have Nurse Annie Linton and Detective Gilles Bellechasse hopping. Suspects include a vigilante group fighting drug dealers, a jealous husband, competing drug dealers, and a mysterious woman of whom nude drawings turn up in a murder victim’s bedroom. Annie Linton, a nurse turned sleuth, reveals excellent diagnostic skills critical in solving the crime.
Former bookseller Richard King has created two memorable characters in A Stab at Life. No other mystery writer has made a nurse (a woman) the lead character and situated the action in a hospital milieu. King’s mysteries are reminiscent of the originators of the mystery genre, writers such as Agatha Christie and Rex Stout and modern writers such as Robert Goldsborough and Louise Penny. A Stab at Life will delight murder mystery fans and have them waiting impatiently for the next in the series.
“…he has talent, wit and Montreal.” Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
“A Stab at Life is a top-notch Montreal crime tale. When it comes to masterful storytelling, Richard is King.” Andreas Kessaris, bookseller and author of The Butcher of Park Ex & Other Semi-Truthfull Tales
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this pleasing mystery from Canadian author King (The Book Review of Death), ER nurse Annie Linton and other medical personnel at Montreal's Gursky Memorial Hospital treat Constable Gilles Bellechasse for a gunshot wound he received during a confrontation with drug dealers in Kennedy Park. A romantic relationship develops between Annie and Gilles, who's released after a week. Mikel Esperanza, a drug dealer and talented artist, is later fatally stabbed in the park. Gilles identifies a mysterious woman in Mikel's drawings as Claire, the wife of Gursky's chief of medicine. Further police work reveals that Claire had an affair with Mikel. Other stabbings, not all of them fatal, follow. Annie provides a vital clue that leads to the killer's unmasking. Meanwhile, a neighborhood group seeks to kick out the drug dealers and return the park to the community. Is it a vigilante effort or is something more personal involved? Brief passages of French lend local color. The light tone and minimal focus on human suffering make this perfect for those who prefer their police procedurals on the cozy side.