A Hard Winter Rain

Geoffrey Cragg is a tenured instructor in the Faculty of Faculty of
Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Like its predecessor, Michael Blair’s second mystery is set in
Vancouver, but it has a different cast of characters and a darker tone.
The plot revolves around the murder that opens the story: an executive,
Patrick O’Neill, is fatally shot in a café shortly after his
resignation from a small holding company. A colleague, “Shoe”
Shumacher, is directed by the company’s ailing founder, Bill Hammond,
to pursue the murder, despite the parallel investigation by the
Vancouver police. As the plot proceeds—and it moves with some
speed—secrets and deceptions emerge: Shoe himself has killed a man in
the course of his duties while protecting Hammond; Patrick’s wife,
Victoria, was Hammond’s mistress for a short time; Hammond’s present
wife is unfaithful; and Hammond’s company appears to have defrauded
the Canadian government.

The complex plot is not resolved until the last moment, in an ending
that some readers may find somewhat forced. Nonetheless, the novel
possesses great energy and makes good use of the gloomy Vancouver winter
to reinforce the sense of darkness and corruption revealed by Shoe’s
detection. Blair also creates much-needed comic relief in scenes
peripheral to the main action, and has a gift for wry descriptions.
Deeper characterization would have made A Hard Winter Rain more
compelling (the reader has little insight into the main characters, and
most of them are not sympathetic), but it remains an exciting and
atmospheric mystery.