Nayan (Neil) Gupta was killed on a trip to Dubai to acquire carpets for a Saskatoon museum. The police report says it was a street robbery that went wrong, but his father believes Neil was a victim of gay-bashing and asks Russell to investigate.

I think this series is starting to run out of steam and there may be a reason this appears to be the penultimate one. ( )

Good story with interesting glimpses of the Middle East. ( )

I was disappointed in this book. I have read and enjoyed all the others in the Russell Quant series and therefore looked forward to enjoying this one too. However, it was a real chore to read, especially the first six chapters, which were tedious and boring. The story finally got going at the beginning of Chapter 7 when Russell goes to Dubai. The storyline had great potential, but the resulting book did not exploit this potential. It seems, based on the last chapter of this book, that the series is going on hiatus. Let's hope that the oncoming sabbatical revitalizes the author and his detective. ( )

I truly do not know how I will fill the next year or so of my life, waiting for book eight in the Russell Quant, Prairie PI, series. It bodes ill that I am already casting feverishly about for possible plot lines that mend the hideous damage done to my beloved Russell in this book. I'm the sort of a boy whose brain needs chew-toys, as my younger brother said once, or it turns on the furniture and tears the place up.

I really loved Aloha, Candy Hearts, and felt that the decidedly substandard Sundowner Ubuntu was partially made up for with the new installment's spiffy pace and beautiful ending. I approached the newest book with a high heart and buoyant hopes.

And then Bidulka goes and exceeds them. Bar none, this is the best book in the series. The mystery is far and away the most accomplished and polished, pulling a suspect switcheroo successfully twice and marginally once. The ending, in fact the last three chapters, are so exciting I was pacing the floor as I read them. (The dog was most confused, poor little love, pacing along with me, looking worried at my exclamations of surprise and excitement.)

The story picks up with Russell happily ensconced in a relationship, seemingly one that's riding on rails it's going so smoothly and directly to Couplesville. He's happy, really truly happy, and the cherry on the sundae of his life lands with a plop in the form of a challenging, extremely remunerative job: Investigate the gay-bashing death of a world-renowned ancient carpet expert in glitzy, ritzy Dubai, all at the expense of a megarich Indian engineer and his wife. It's the engineer's son who's dead. Now...what to tell Mr. Man? "Honey, I'm going away for a few weeks, my life's going to be in danger, kiss kiss!"

Clouds gather, shadows lengthen, and once in Dubai, Russell enters the hyper-closeted world of gay Arabia, and the hyper-competitive world of ancient carpet buying and selling. What happens there leads Russell from a hot Arabian sandstorm back to frigid, January-blasted Saskatoon, a chase scene featuring Mr. Man's property's frozen pond, bullets, a dead body, and a Big Reveal that is really a Big Reveal!

I love being surprised, especially when I've come to the conclusion that a series is fun but no great shakes, worth reading because it's just entertaining. And now I'm awake and alert again, eager for the next book, agog to see what the author will do to fix a certain giant chasm he's ripped in Russell's life.

2011 can't come fast enough. I need my fix!! ( )