About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

LITTLE BOY BLUES
by Mary Jane Maffini
RendezVous Press, August 2002
320 pages
$10.95
ISBN: 0929141946


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The third entry in the Camilla MacPhee series finds the feisty Ottawa victims' advocate looking forward to life without her bete noir assistant, the annoying Alvin Ferguson, who has secured another job at a prestigious local gallery. Just before Camilla can hoist a cold one in celebration, word comes from Alvin's family in Sidney, Nova Scotia, that his vulnerable younger brother has disappeared.

The usually acerbic Alvin is paralysed by grief, but Camilla comes to his rescue, aided by the martial strategy of her neighbour, the ancient but deadly Mrs. Parnell. In a borrowed Buick, they make a whirlwind trip to the Maritimes in search of clues to the boy's sudden vanishing. Brain-damaged by a tragic accident years ago, is he the angelic innocent he seems, or does his naivete mask a darker side? Is his quirky family a loyal team, or do they have something to hide, too? What are the police concealing in their Young Offender files?

Maffini keeps the plot boiling as Alvin and Camilla comb alleys and visit chip stands to trace Jimmy's last hours, stirring up old sins which threaten to destroy guarded lives. As usual, her trademark tongue-in-cheek humour provides a counterfoil to serious events: "You don't hear a slogan that says 'See Canada by Dark,' and for good reason." The redoubtable Violet Parnell concocts World War II scenarios as the unlikely trio, fuelled by Tim Horton doughnuts, speeds across provinces. Gussie the dog provides a flatulent companionship and readers discover a new side to the cats-eye-glassed Alvin. Serving as an attractive and compelling frame is the famed Ottawa Bluesfest, a music festival which may be playing Camilla's swan song.

Editor's Note: Lou Allin is the author of Northern Winters are Murder and Blackflies are Murder both set in Sudbury, Ontario, once the Nickel mining capital of the world, and both available from RendezVous Press

Reviewed by Lou Allin, August 2002

This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]