Review: Unique non-partnership with plenty of potential
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2012
Deadly Legacy is an honest to goodness Mystery patterned after early mystery writers Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe. The story, however, is set on 21st century Canadian soil. Putting a finger on the genre is tricky: Mystery/Police Procedural/Sci-Fi/touch of Romance. Maybe.The main characters, police detective Kate Garrett and private eye Jake Carmedy have one thing in common: Kate's father. Wait, two things - they don't much like each other. Or do they? Their working relationship reflects neither Scully & Mulder nor Bones & Booth. Theirs is a unique non-partnership, with plenty of potential.This Police Procedural is written with attention to well-researched detail of law enforcement technique. The "whodunit" mystery portion of the novel is laid out with thought provoking precision. Evident throughout the story is author Alison Bruce's first hand knowledge of Canadian life and her artistic talent for storytelling.As the story unfolds, Kate Garrett must guard her emotions while she determines the cause of her father's death. Did someone arrange to have him killed, or was police officer turned private investigator Joe Garrett's death an accident? Kate's investigation leads her to several potential suspects, a disturbing underground drug activity, and plenty of unanswered questions.Joe Garrett's partner in Garrett Investigations is Jake Carmedy. With Joe dead, Jake's job is in limbo; he is now half-owner of a company that may have no future. He continues the investigation into three murders that Joe started and was working on the day he died. Jake's case holds clues to the investigation opened by Kate Garrett, who is the other half-owner of Garrett Investigations.Deadly Legacy is another of those first-in-a-mystery-series novels I look forward to following.