A Stab at Life
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Former bookseller Richard King has created two memorable characters in his mystery novel, A Stab at Life. Annie Linton, RN, is a nurse in the Emergency Department of the Gursky Memorial Hospital in Montreal and Gilles Bellechasse, a detective in the Major Crimes Division of the Montreal Police Force. Gilles is in charge of investigating a series of murders that have occurred in a park and the area surrounding the Gursky Memorial located in the Cote-des-Neiges area of the city. Suspects include members of a vigilante group devoted to getting drug dealers out of the park, a jealous husband, a mysterious woman of whom nude drawings turn up in one of the murder victim's bedroom, and competing drug dealers. Annie's excellent diagnostic skill play a critical role in solving the crime. 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. Margaret Cannon said of King in the Globe & Mail: "…he has talent, wit and Montreal." A Stab at Life will delight fans of murder mysteries and have them waiting impatiently for the next novel in the series.
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.
