|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
This is the third of Blair's Granville Island series featuring the Vancouver photographer Tom McCall. Like the previous title in the series, OVEREXPOSED, this one is also a photographic term, one that refers to how much is in focus in an image - from foreground to background. There are several possible ways in which the title might be relevant, but certainly there are shifting planes of focus in this amateur sleuth mystery revolving around the mysterious attack on McCall's business partner. Bobbi is viciously beaten and left for dead when she goes to photograph a luxury boat, a job originally slated for McCall. And thus the mystery starts because there seems no real reason for the attack. ( Bobbi's father even blames McCall for his daughter's injuries, claiming McCall was the real target given his penchant for getting mixed up in crime scenes.) The woman who commissioned the job turns out to be an impostor and the real Anna Waverley does not even own the boat. Does she have any connection to the event? Apparently not, but slowly, as McCall digs deeper, a connection emerges involving sex and politics, greed and duplicity. Violence escalates. Bobbi survives but others do not. On another plane, the relationships between McCall and Bobbi, their respective loves, family members, and friends, become interwoven with the crime investigation. The book stands on its own but readers familiar with the previous entries in the series will enjoy the ongoing developments in the lives of the staple characters. It's always fun for a Canadian to be able to relate to the settings in the mysteries we read. Although Blair lives in Montreal, he captures the Vancouver scene, especially Granville Island with its colourful atmosphere and its unique floating houseboats. He has a good ear for dialogue and the story moves briskly along.
Reviewed by Ann Pearson, June 2009
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
