Luck: A Bill Shmata Mystery

Stephen Greenhalgh is Prospect Research Analyst, Advancement Services,
University of Alberta.

Dave Carpenter’s first mystery to feature Bill Shmata, a retired
member of the Saskatoon Police Service, opens with the brutal double
murder of two wealthy Vancouver men and best friends, Bishop Montgomery
and Lamont Spencer. Former special investigator Shmata is called out of
retirement to explore a possible connection between the two Vancouver
homicides and local Saskatoon resident, Earl Claney. In 1951, Claney’s
older brother, Joseph, was murdered by Cletis Bulger, a henchman
employed by Montgomery and Spencer. Shmata must determine whether the
now elderly and cancer-stricken Earl Claney, acting out of a
long-delayed revenge, was responsible for the two men’s deaths. His
investigation leads him to the Banff Rockies, where he meets Willie
Grussen, a German immigrant and limousine driver with a few secrets of
his own to tell.

Carpenter’s narrative moves effortlessly between Shmata’s present
investigation and the events of 1951 that led to the death of Joseph
Claney. Carpenter successfully teams his star character with Bertha
Eeling, a librarian who is also employed by the Saskatoon Police
Service, and who, as the reader quickly learns, is an adept investigator
and amateur sleuth in her own right. Together they lead a host of other
well-written characters, including Julie Belanger, an overworked and
grossly underpaid homecare provider who befriends the elderly Earl.
Another aspect of the novel is its social commentary on the class system
in Canadian society; the greediness of Montgomery and Spencer is
contrasted with the overt poverty of Belanger and her son, Sammy.

Luck is an excellent start to what this reviewer hopes will be a new
Canadian mystery series.