Crang Plays the Ace

Cause a "poker face" ain’t just a song by Lady Gaga.

Crang is a criminal lawyer. He loves jazz, old movies, Polish vodka, his Volkswagen convertible, and his girlfriend Annie, not necessarily in that order. A wise-cracking WASP with a moral code that owes little to the Law Society of Upper Canada, Crang is equally quick with his lip and fists, but he can tell a fish fork from a pair of brass knuckles when he has to.

The clients who come to Crang’s second-floor walk-up office on Toronto’s Queen Street strip – street punks, two bit robbers, and small-time scam artists – are usually guilty. Crang likes it that way. Mostly he gets them off and they’re grateful.

So when Matthew Wansborough, wealthy financier and scion of a fine old family, comes to Crang with the novel problem that his $300,000 investment in Ace Disposal Services is too profitable, Crang is puzzled.

Wansborough isn’t Crang’s usual kind of client and Ace isn’t Wansborough’s usual kind of blue-chip operation.

Crang’s unorthodox investigation of Ace reveals that it’s a dirty player in a dirty business, run by men who oil the wheels of commerce with kickbacks, fraud, muscle – and murder.

Mystery and comedy mix in this entertaining novel, written with the in-depth knowledge of the legal scene and the easygoing style that have made bestsellers of Batten’s previous books. Once readers have made the acquaintance of Crang, they will be eager to read of his future cases in what promises to be a long and successful series.