The Calling
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4.0 • 29 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Voted one of the Best Mystery Books of 2008 by Publisher's Weekly
This dazzling crime-fiction debut — a dark, haunting, compassionate story of the hunt for a killer motivated by love — will be the international publishing event of the season.
This brilliant debut mystery has it all: characters so realistic they rise off the page; a devious plot that delivers both psychological depth and emotional heights; exceptionally fine, deft writing; a stunning cross-Canada manhunt; a detective like no other; and the promise of more mysteries in the series.
The first homicide that Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef, acting chief of the Port Dundas police, has had to investigate in almost three years is that of cancer patient Delia Chandler, a woman who once had an affair with Hazel’s father. When a few days later, and three hundred kilometres away, the mutilated body of an MS sufferer is found, painted in Chandler’s blood, Micallef realizes that someone is killing the terminally ill, and not for mercy’s sake. Hobbled by a bad back and a skeptical police bureaucracy, Inspector Micallef takes it upon herself to coordinate a nationwide manhunt for the killer; a man, she soon learns, who can save a life as dramatically as he can end one — a man with God on his mind, grief in his heart, and a desperate need to kill.
This thrilling psychological tale stands alongside the best contributions to the genre by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell), Minette Walters, and Patricia Highsmith.
The Calling is being published simultaneously in the U.S. by Harcourt and in the U.K. by Transworld.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This bracingly original mystery from the pseudonymous Wolfe opens with the grisly slaying of an elderly cancer sufferer in Port Dundas, a remote Ontario town that has gone years without a homicide. The murder hits at a particularly tough time for 61-year-old Det. Insp. Hazel Micallef, who's struggling to come to terms with a surprise divorce and battles daily with her acerbic 87-year-old mother. A serious staff shortage and an injured back add to the department commander's woes. A second, even more disturbing killing raises the ante for Micallef, who's already doubtful she can solve the first case. As Micallef marshals her forces, Wolfe fans the already high suspense by cutting between them and their elusive quarry. With the body count climbing, the detective puts herself increasingly at risk in a desperate attempt to foil the grand, demented plan that the killer regards as a mission. Billed as "a prominent North American literary novelist," Wolfe convincingly lays claim to a new mantle as a first-rate crime writer.
Customer Reviews
The Calling
Better than CSI and homegrown! Should be a series or TV movie.
The Calling
The storyline in and of itself was excellent. That's it for the good points.
The author clearly did not have a research assistant given the myriad factual errors throughout the book. Neither did the author consult with law enforcement as the glaring errors to the operation of a Canadian police organization indicate.
This novel may appeal to a reader of limited intelligence but anyone with a modicum of understanding Canadian geography, police procedure, Canadian law and fact in general would find the book to be sophomoric at best.
I can fully understand why the author chose to write this drivel under a pseudonym.