Blood Count: A Crang Mystery

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

Lawyer-sleuth Crang is back, in two ways, and the news is good on both
counts. First, he is back for a fourth adventure in the mostly
delightful series by former lawyer (and prolific journalist of the
Canadian legal scene) Jack Batten. And, perhaps equally important, he is
back on his home turf, Toronto, after an unfortunate outing to France in
the last book, the least interesting of the series so far.

The familiar characters whom we have been getting to know from the
first book are all here: Crang’s Bay Street lawyer friend; an
ambitious young burglar whose employ would get Crang instantly
disbarred; Crang’s movie-reviewer girlfriend, who has gone from a
part-time job on morning radio to having her own television program; and
the gay couple to whom Crang rents his downstairs apartment. Alas, these
two won’t be back in Crang’s next adventure. Inquiries into the
death of the first from AIDS lead to the murder of the second, and Crang
finds himself exploring a world of gay bars, with side trips to the
SkyDome, to exclusive athletic clubs, and into the path of a powerful
gangster. There is the usual repartee—irreverent, entertaining, and
implausible; the pace is brisk for the most part; and the book is an
entertaining read, despite its bleak AIDS-related overtones.