I got to this faster than I anticipated—I read the first volume just back in the summer during my Canadian mystery binge. I do like Hazel Micallef, despite her rough ways and prejudices. Maybe because of them. Once again, it is the characters that bring me back to Wolfe's work. It's like a soap opera and I need to know what happens to them all.
Hazel seems to be in a better, if sad, place. Her back surgery seems to be successful despite some rough handling during this investigation. Has she beaten her addiction to pain pills? I guess time will tell. She has spent her recovery time in her ex-husband's basement, being cared for by her mother and the new wife. Quite a humiliating situation, but beggars can't be choosers.
We also learn why Quinn left the big smoke of Toronto for the backwater of Port Dundas. He has survived being Acting Chief while Acting Chief Micallef is recovering but he has not enjoyed the experience. Humans are hierarchical creatures and he knows that he is resented because he is so new in the department.
There are also broad hints that in the near future the Port Dundas police are going to be reorganized by those above them and that it's not going to be pretty. Hazel goes to talk to the man in charge who basically tells her that she's a dinosaur and doomed to extinction. Now she must decide whether to retire as they wish her to or if she will fight back. (There are two more books, so I think I know what she chooses.)
The crime in this book that requires solving is convoluted and bloody. I give Wolfe points for a twisty plot, but I wonder about the likelihood of such a thing happening in such a small centre. I had to consciously suspend my disbelief, much the same way I dealt with the serial killer in the first book. The crimes he devises are just over the top and I hope that small town police officers aren't receiving bloody hands delivered to their desks.
A peek ahead at the description of the third book confirms my suspicions about political shenanigans, so I will shoehorn it into my reading queue ASAP.
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