Author: Craig Johnson

We have seen a few seasons of Longmire on Netflix and the book (on Kindle) had almost all of the characters from the show so it felt very familiar. The story takes place in Absaroka County but often flips back in time to Walt’s time in Vietnam.

The only problem I had with the book (and maybe it was just the Kindle edition) was that the jump from present day back to Vietnam gave a heading and date whereas the jump back to the present time gave no indication; one paragraph was a conversation in Vietnam and the next paragraph was a conversation back in the present day.

I enjoyed the book enough that I might look for others in the series; it is often a long wait between Longmire seasons.

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Author: Ian Rankin

This Ian Rankin book (on the Kindle) was written after he had retired the Rebus character, which I always enjoyed. The main character, Malcolm Fox, is with the team that investigates the misconduct of other police officers. When his sister’s partner is found murdered suspicion begins to rest with Malcolm and he is suspended. Malcolm, and the cop he was investigating at the time of his suspension, begins to piece together who is behind the murder and why they are both under investigation.

Although the story was interesting, the switch from cop-who-investigates-cops to the detective-on-the-street didn’t ring true to me.

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Author: Louise Doughty

This was the first book I picked to read on the Kindle I borrowed from the library.

The story starts with the thoughts of one of the main characters as she views a courtroom, from the witness box, where she has been charged with a serious crime. You don’t find out what that crime is until well into the book. It was an interesting read, but nothing I couldn’t put down.

I see there is a recent BBC drama that is based on this book.

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Author: Stevie Cameron

This really couldn’t be considered holiday reading, but I spent most of my holidays with it. Surprisingly I could hardly put it down.

The details outlined in the book were not unfamiliar but taken in one sitting they were very disturbing. I started the book angry with the VPD because of their arrogance and inability to put aside political differences to act quickly; had they performed better there is a good chance they could have saved some of the women from the Downtown Eastside.

Because the murders took place in Port Coquitlam I was very familiar with all the places mentioned. I used to be so proud to live in Terry Fox’s hometown and then this gave us more notoriety than we ever wanted. I often saw the news vehicles and camera crews outside the courthouse as I went in to work at City Hall and knew that something was happening on the Pickton case.

I ended the book angry as well. I had forgotten that Willie Pickton had been found guilty of second-degree murder and not murder in the first degree. I also felt badly for the families of the missing women who never had a chance to have their cases go to court.

Not an easy read, but very well written.

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