Last of the Independents

Starred review from May 1, 2014
Buckle yourself in for this one. For a good chunk of the novel, we're reminded why we like detective tales: at their best, they're smart entertainment. Here's 29-year-old Vancouver PI Michael Drayton, who quotes Shakespeare and digresses agreeably on why cops go roguethey seek the justice the system fails to provideand leavens the fun with a drop of world-sorrow. Years ago, a little girl vanished, and his failure to find her haunts him. So does her family, who have convinced themselves she's alive somewhere and camp out in Drayton's office. But then a young man also disappears. Was he a hapless bystander in a carjacking? Was something else going on? Drayton investigates the matter, which oddly mirrors the earlier disappearance. His queries lead him into a tiresome world of tough-talking twerps and droning druggies. Readers can wonder: Is this all? Keep reading. In the last pages, the PI enters the heart of darkness, an evocation of evil all the more powerful for its understated style. Not a beach read but a literary achievement.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)