Hummingbird Soup

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

The Jacamar Nest, coyly subtitled “A Thriller / A Love Story,”
introduced Harry Bracken, 40, widowed by a terrorist bomb, father of a
teenage daughter, a man who spent 17 years in the spy business before
becoming an insurance investigator in New England. This sequel,
subtitled “A Thriller / Not Quite A Love Story,” sees him called in
to help his elderly mentor from his CIA days, whose granddaughter
appears to have been kidnapped. That the girl’s mother is a former
lover complicates things, as does the long distance separating Harry and
his love interest from the first book, who appears only briefly in this
one. The search for the missing girl leads Harry into the world of money
laundering, rock music, and smuggling, and takes him from New England to
St. Kitts. Along the way, we meet some delightful characters who would
not be out of place in an Elmore Leonard yarn. There is action aplenty,
as well as some good lines; I laughed out loud twice, which is two more
laughs than one finds in many alleged comedy-thrillers.

This is a better novel than Parry’s first—better paced, less
convoluted, and more fun. The tale is told in 62 short chapters,
averaging five pages each, which minimizes what little concentration the
book demands and makes it a perfect companion for the hot tub or the
commuter train.