色色啦

Harbour Publishing, 312 pages, $24.95

When last we encountered Dave Wakeland, the cop turned private investigator at the heart of Vancouver writer Sam Wiebe鈥檚 ongoing series, he had fled the west coast for Montreal after a case that saw him put his own sister behind bars. But it was probably inevitable that his self-imposed retirement would be short-lived and he would eventually return to the city that is synonymous with the character.

Wakeland is called back to Vancouver by lawyer Shuzhen Chen, the cousin of his former business partner. Shuzhen needs help proving that her client, a local ne鈥檈r-do-well named Maggie Zito, was not responsible for the murders of an erstwhile member of the notorious Exiles motorcycle gang and his wife aboard their million-dollar float house. Before long, Wakeland has fallen back into a relationship with his old flame Shuzhen and finds himself deeply enmeshed in the drug running and internecine politics of the outlaw biker gang.

鈥淭he Last Exile鈥� 鈥� a title that applies as much to Wakeland as to any of the bikers 鈥� is a typically tough and fast hard-boiled crime thriller, featuring the return of such series characters as Wakeland鈥檚 ex-business partner Jeff Chen and Terry Rhodes, the terrifying and powerful leader of the Exiles. As always, one of the central pleasures here is Wiebe鈥檚 remarkably vivid portrait of a particularly seedy side of Vancouver, with its multimillion-dollar properties and scenic vistas masking a culture of economic precarity and seething violence.

The Maid鈥檚 Secret

Nita Prose

Viking, 336 pages, $26.95

Molly the maid returns in the third instalment of Nita Prose鈥檚 bestselling series featuring the titular employee at the sumptuous Regency Grand Hotel stepping in to solve another puzzling mystery. In this case, it’s the theft of a priceless Faberg茅 egg that Molly has brought to be assessed by Brown and Beagle, the hosts of an 鈥淎ntiques Roadshow鈥�-like reality TV show. Aiding her in her search are series regulars Juan Manuel, the hotel鈥檚 pastry chef and Molly鈥檚 fianc茅, and doorman John Preston, who is also Molly鈥檚 grandfather.

What sets this third volume apart from its predecessors is the space devoted to Gran, a previously marginal character who is given centre stage here, apparently at least in part as a response to reader requests to have her fleshed out. The result is a braided narrative; the heist story in the present is interspersed with Gran鈥檚 diary entries about her early life as a wealthy debutante, describing the events that led to her family鈥檚 loss of their estate and fortune.

The problem with this kind of structure is that one half is inevitably more interesting than the other, and here the diary entries impede the forward momentum of the more engaging mystery narrative. Gran not only speaks in clich茅s, but also her entire trajectory is boilerplate, rendering that part of the book sorely predictable and slow. 鈥淭he Maid鈥檚 Secret鈥� is an object lesson in the dangers of giving readers what they want.

Dirty Little War

Dietrich Kalteis

ECW Press, 488 pages, $26.95

Prolific crime novelist Dietrich Kalteis is back with one of his most ambitious books yet: a sprawling Prohibition-era story set in Chicago. Huckabee Waller flees his home in New Orleans and sets up in the Windy City, where he earns money as a bare-knuckle boxer before finding himself embroiled in the metropolis鈥檚 vicious taxi wars. Working as an enforcer for the Yellow Cab company, he soon takes up union busting for his employer鈥檚 rival, Checker Cabs, and moonlights by bootlegging liquor across the Canadian border.

In 鈥淒irty Little War,鈥� Kalteis has attempted a crime epic on the order of Sergio Leone鈥檚 鈥淥nce Upon a Time in America.鈥� His cast of characters includes historical figures like John D. Hertz, owner of Yellow Cab, and Chicago Mayor William 鈥淏ig Bill鈥� Thompson. Even Al Capone makes a cameo. The inclusion of real-life figures lends the narrative verisimilitude, and Huck鈥檚 career as a street brawler turned mob enforcer is well handled and believable.

Unfortunately, the novel is marred by overlength and sections in which the pace flags. The three bare-knuckle boxing matches in the first 50 pages are probably two too many, and Huck鈥檚 romance with a nurse who moonlights as a 鈥渘ickel girl鈥� dancer feels cloying. As does his relationship with an Oliver Twist-type named Izzy, a street-smart youngster who reads 鈥淢oby-Dick鈥� and 鈥淗uckleberry Finn鈥� (not to mention, at one point, 鈥淥liver Twist,鈥� which is a bit too on the nose). These elements are presumably there to humanize Huck, though they tend to slow down an already bloated narrative. A bit of judicious cutting would have helped speed this one along.

The Silent Film Star Murders

Melodie Campbell

Cormorant Books, 288 pages, $24.95

Burlington, Ont., author Melodie Campbell returns to the high seas along with her amateur sleuth, Lady Lucy Revelstoke, in this followup to 2023鈥檚 鈥淭he Merry Widow Murders.鈥� In this instalment, Lady Revelstoke and her precocious maid Elf (think a reformed pickpocket version of Alex Borstein鈥檚 character on 鈥�The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel鈥�) try to find out what happened when Meg Harwood, the sister of renowned screen actress Renata Harwood, goes missing on board the luxurious ocean liner the Victoriana.

Campbell does a good job recreating the kind of classic English puzzle mystery Agatha Christie excelled at, right down to the locked-room setting on board a cruise ship. Since this is the same setting as the previous book, some readers might cavil that the author is repeating herself, but her variation on a cosy whodunnit nevertheless sports a colourful cast of characters and a glitzy milieu with some well-placed commentary on class disparity and celebrity culture.

There are a few missteps in the plot 鈥� in a search of second-class cabins it’s unclear whether three or four were entered 鈥� but nothing that would mar the essential solution to the mystery.