Blurb and cover image from Goodreads
A gripping noir mystery introducing artless young detective Patrick Bird, set in Toronto’s Parkdale during the tumultuous ’60s.
“I didn’t kill her. I had the thought, the idea. What’s the saying? The road to heaven is paved with bad intentions?”
Police academy burnout turned private eye Patrick Bird works divorce cases, using his camera to catch the unfaithful and the lonely looking for love in rented rooms. But his easy routine is shattered by a new case involving a missing girl.
Sixteen-year-old Abbie Linklater hasn’t been home for three days. Her mother believes Abbie’s getting an abortion. Her twin brother thinks she’s studying at the library. Her best friend couldn’t care less. Her father has no idea; he just wants her home without involving the police.
Before the sun sets on the first day of his investigation, as Bird roams the streets of Toronto looking for the runaway, he’s caught a drifter prowling in the Linklater’s backyard, stumbled into a creepy church with a belligerent minister, sparred with the client, been hit by a car, and discovered some loose ends in a bank robbery gone wrong a decade earlier.
And that was before he found the body.
This was a very entertaining read. Our main character, Patrick Bird, is a very endearing and one gets the impression he wants to be more worldly than he actually is. The setting is 1960s Toronto, which feels very exotic to this Irish millennial reader. It is certainly very atmospheric and the supporting characters are, in general, intriguing. There’s a great interplay between classes and generations and the story did not go in the direction I had anticipated and that is no bad thing. While the relationships grow ever more convoluted, this is written well enough that it kept me hooked, and the pacing is just right.
A sign of a good mystery is one that keeps you reading and this certainly succeeds. I would absolutely read more stories about Patrick Bird, and more books by Alexis Stevanovich-Thomson.
whelmed.blog 