Former bookseller Richard King has created two memorable characters in his mystery novel, A Stab at Life. Annie Linton, RN, is a nurse in the Emergency Department of the Gursky Memorial Hospital in Montreal and Gilles Bellechasse, a detective in the Major Crimes Division of the Montreal Police Force. Gilles is in charge of investigating a series of murders that have occurred in a park and the area surrounding the Gursky Memorial located in the Cote-des-Neiges area of the city. Suspects include members of a vigilante group devoted to getting drug dealers out of the park, a jealous husband, a mysterious woman of whom nude drawings turn up in one of the murder victim’s bedroom, and competing drug dealers. Annie’s excellent diagnostic skill play a critical role in solving the crime. King’s mysteries are reminiscent of the originators of the mystery genre, writers such as Agatha Christie and Rex Stout and modern writers such as Robert Goldsborough and Louise Penny. Margaret Cannon said of King in the Globe & Mail: “…he has talent, wit and Montreal.” A Stab at Life will delight fans of murder mysteries and have them waiting impatiently for the next novel in the series.

Gazette / Ottawa Review of Books