Another winner in the Lane Winslow saga, culminating in (at last) a wedding. Fans of the series (like me) are not disappointed in this latest instance of mystery and developments in time Kings Cove.
The story here is a bit convoluted, with gangsters from the East making deadly mischief in the Nelson area, right around the time of the long-awaited wedding for Sergeant Ames and Ms Van Eyck. A very strange murder (that, of course, Lane discovers) is blended in with a plot about a runaway boy, mining ventures in the area, and romances amongst the characters. There is also social commentary about the times, including racial tensions and the emancipation of women. While these could have been heavy-handed, Whishaw does her usually good job of integrating the issues into the story and characters, showing the progress and challenges of a changing society without editorializing.
The murder itself is quite complicated, only being resolved at the very end and still somewhat strange. I hope the other stories, including the runaway and his mother, and the budding romances, are continued in the next instalment.
Again surprising to me is how little time has passed over these 13 novels. Book 1 was the summer of 1946 and here we are in the summer and fall of 1948. So much has happened, and so many murders – Kings Cove is quite the exciting place to live.
As always, I’m left with a sense of anticipation for the next adventure and advance for all the various couples and characters.
One quibble with this book is the number of typos and errors in the text. Examples: page 97 includes an extra quotation mark in some dialogue; another one on page 319; page 406, it says, “It was still dark outside.” But it wasn’t dark yet. There were at least 3 other errors like this earlier in the book. Perhaps the pace of editing should slow down so all the errors are corrected…
Fate: passing along to a fellow Lane admirer
1 – a book with a murder
4 – published 2026
8 – a female author
33 – Canadian
36 – part of a series
rclr 
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