Genre: Mystery
Description:
“A decade ago, Hector Collins was investigating the murder of a
cross-dressing soldier while stationed in Afghanistan. The investigation cost
him his career, an eye and his honour. The case was never solved.
Now, Heck has slipped into an easy life as a bouncer at a strip club,
Pandora’s Box Gentleman’s Club. It’s a comfortable life, a life without
responsibilities, danger, or commitments. That simple life is challenged when a
trans girl is murdered and Heck lends his expertise to the investigation.
Together with Hazel, a tattooed stripper with her own criminal past,
they attempt to unravel the true identity of the killer. Can they stop him
before he kills again or will they be his next victims?”
Author:
By day, Wayne Purdy works as a transit operator in Pembroke, Ontario.
But in his off hours he’s what he calls an aspiring writer. This is his second
published novel.
Appraisal:
The two main characters in this story, Hector, called Heck for short,
and Hazel have interesting pasts and in a lot of ways their current life doesn’t
seem to fit what you’d expect from them based on their skills, experience, and
smarts. But as you get to know them better, you also come to an understanding
of the factors that led to their current situations. Heck is ex-military
police, but about ten years ago found himself ousted from this career in the
middle of a murder case. He’s now a bouncer at a strip club. Hazel is an intelligent
single mother with a troubled past that has been holding her back, but is
managing to survive working as a stripper at the same place as Heck. These
characters and their life stories that slowly come out as they get to know each
other and work on solving the mystery at the heart of this book adds a lot to
the story.
That case that Heck was working when he got tossed from the military
ten years ago also figures into the mystery today, causing a police detective in
his current hometown who was one of his former peers in the military police to
come to him when he recognizes a current case has a lot in common with that prior
case. Heck can’t resist, jumping at the chance to dig into this now and over
time involves Hazel in his investigation. I won’t say anything too specific about
the mystery other than if the current murder was done by the same person who
did the first, as seems almost surely the situation from the beginning, then the
list of suspects gets whittled down to a fairly small number quickly, but
figuring out which of the possible suspects did the crime (not to mention
getting evidence), or if the base assumption that both were done by the same
person is true, makes for lots of interesting investigation and problem solving
as Heck and Hazel look for and fit together all the pieces of the puzzle.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
The author is from Canada and uses Canadian spelling conventions.
Some language and adult content.
This is the first of what looks to be a planned series featuring Heck
Collins.
Format/Typo
Issues:
A small number of typos and other proofing misses.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words
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