This is not a pleasant read and is basically a “what if” story that asks “what if aman doesn’t get what he wants from a woman “? what if he’s smart ? what if he’s slow? what if she’s got her head in the sand ? what if he’s never sometimes may not telling the truth ? what if she can’t tell ? what if he does tell the truth and it’s not what she wants to hear ? What if you put all that in a blender and leave the lid adjar when you press “on”?

Then you’d have something like this on your hands and it wouldn’t be pretty most of the time - even if she wanted it to be .

( )

I realized when I was about 50 pages into this book that I have read it before but as I couldn't remember the ending I decided to continue.

This is another in the series of books featuring RCMP Staff Sargeant Karl Alberg working on BC's Sunshine Coast. Karl's father died in London Ontario and Karl went to the funeral. He is entitled to bereavement leave but finds himself returning to BC because he isn't needed by his mother. A local man has disappeared but it's not a police matter because it seems there was no foul play involved. He just sold his insurance business to his partner without telling his wife and leaves all his "prized possessions" behind. Karl's junior in the RCMP detachment, Sid Sokolowski, is a next door neighbour to the missing man and he suggests that Karl use his leave to investigate the disappearance.

Meanwhile there is another thread to this story about a somewhat slow man, Eddie, who works in a drugstore in Vancouver. He made a delivery to a university student and while she was looking for money for a tip he walks down the hall. He accidentally goes into her bedroom which, understandably, frightens the girl and she asks him to leave. He swears at her and goes back to work. Later they have another run-in and he assaults her. At his sister's insistence he writes an apology but then is incensed that she doesn't reply. So he writes another letter but this one is threatening and he is worried she is going to complain to his boss. His pal, Gardiner, advises him to throw a scare into her. He decides to almost hit her with his car as she is on her way to work one morning. However, he miscalculates and hits her, killing her instantly. He is afraid that his notes will tie him to the hit and run so he decides to try to get them back.

It's hard to see how these two stories are going to come together but they do in the penultimate chapter.

Karl, who has been dating Cassandra Mitchell for 8 years, decides in this book to ask Cassandra to marry him.

I enjoyed this even the second time around although I don't think it is one of Wright's best. It's interesting to have the two disparate stories but also somewhat jolting. I also had a hard time believing the wife of the missing man. But these are minor quibbles and I would recommend the book. ( )

#5 in the series (1992). "RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg is at a crossroads. Coping with the death of his father and his own inexorable slide into middle age, he must make a decision about his relationship with Cassandra Mitchell, his lover of 8 years. Restless and in desperate need of distraction, Karl finds a project to fill the time during his bereavement leave: looking into the all-too-neat disappearance of a local man on the morning after his sixth wedding anniversary. Ultimately the case converges with another, as the very messy life of a simple-minded Vancouver stock boy spills over into the small coastal town of Sechelt." - Seal jacket notes
Very good: fascinating crime story, likeable police characters. An excellent series. ( )