Children in the Morning

February 8, 2010
Monty Collins’s appealing preteen daughter, Normie, applies her eerie “second sight” to crime solving in Emery’s engrossing fifth mystery to feature the Halifax, Nova Scotia, defense attorney (after 2009’s Cecilian Vespers
). Monty’s latest client, celebrated lawyer Beau Delaney, stands accused of killing his wife of nearly 20 years, Peggy, by pushing her down their basement stairs one night and clobbering her with a stone. Peggy’s last reported words referred to Hell’s Angels, a possible clue to Beau’s troubled past. Normie’s unsettling dreams supply more leads. Meanwhile, Monty’s rocky relationship with Normie’s mother, who’s terrified she may lose custody of her baby to her angry Italian ex-boyfriend, adds more drama. The whole city of Halifax follows Beau’s trial, worried what will happen to his 10 children if he’s convicted, while Monty wonders if some cases are ever closed. Despite the book’s somewhat slow start, fans of traditional whodunits will be well satisfied.

Starred review from May 1, 2010
Charged with his wife's murder, high-profile Halifax, N.S., lawyer Beau Delaney hires Monty Collins ("Cecilian Vespers") to put together a legal defense that will exonerate Beau and save his ten children from orphanhood. As Monty investigates with his friend Father Brennan Burke, nine-year-old Normie Collins, who has the gift of second sight, provides clues with her disturbing dreams. VERDICT By having Normie tell the story, Arthur Ellis Award-winning Emery allows readers to walk beside the girl as she deals with her second sight, the abuse of other children, and the anguish she feels when the peace of her home life is threatened. Not since Robert K. Tannenbaum's Lucy Karp, a young woman who talks with saints, have we seen a more poignant rendering of a female child with unusual powers. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 1/10.]

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