Entertaining legal thriller with a fine mix of sharply drawn characters.
Mr. Singh enjoys his short morning chats with Kevin Brace, one of the customers to whom he delivers the newspaper every morning, so it comes as a particular shock when Brace opens the door one morning with bloody hands and confesses to killing his wife, whose body Singh finds in the Braces' bathtub. Those words -- "I killed her" -- will be the last words Brace speaks to anyone; he refuses to talk to the police, and insists on communicating even with his lawyer only in writing.
Not talking is out of character for Brace, who is Toronto's most popular talk-radio host, but the police and Crown Attorney's office aren't terribly bothered. With a dead body, a weapon, and a confession on hand, this should be an easy case. But then, there are those mysterious fingerprints that shouldn't be at the scene; Brace's silence poses unexpected obstacles; and the judge assigned to the case is just unpredictable enough to make everyone nervous.
The story is full of nifty twists, and Rotenberg gives us a terrific bunch of characters; I particularly liked Nancy Parish, Brace's attorney, who can't figure out what her client is up to, and Detective Ari Greene, whose scenes with his grumpy retired father provide much of the novel's comic relief. Because the story's set in Canada, the courtroom sequences happen slightly differently than they might in an American city, but never so much so that the U.S. reader will feel ambushed by something he didn't see coming.
This is a very good first novel, and several of these characters could easily continue on as series protagonists, if Rotenberg so chooses.
No comments:
Post a Comment