A Cloud of Suspects

Michael Payne is head of the Research and Publications Program at the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
the co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

This is the 13th book in one of the most successful and longest running
of Canadian mystery series. It features the Vancouver detectives Jack
Willows and Claire Parker. In earlier books, Willows and Parker moved
from being police partners to partners of a more personal sort. In this
book, they are now married, have a new baby, and some fairly predictable
personal problems as a result. All is not well with their marriage, or
with their older children by a previous marriage: son Sean is now a
policeman himself and working undercover, and daughter Annie’s best
friend may want more than just friendship.

These personal issues provide a narrative subtext for the main plot
line, which involves a curiously engaging ex-con; his ex-wife, who
happens to run a failing tattoo parlour; and her new lover. Together
they fall into planning a major theft of diamonds, but all of them have
secrets and conflicting intentions. Paralleling this planned heist,
Willows is investigating the rather nasty murder of a reptilian
developer, and Parker’s family doctor is behaving very strangely.

In the end, the many plot threads—or at least most of them—are
resolved. Nevertheless, Sean is left with a major dilemma to work out
after he learns that police work is sometimes morally ambiguous.
Sean’s situation suggests a new book in the works, as well as a new
focus in this series on Jack Willows’s adult children.

Earlier books in this series have won a number of Arthur Ellis and
other crime-fiction awards. They have also attracted a large and loyal
readership. Both underscore Gough’s success in writing engaging and
accessible books that combine elements of conventional mysteries with
police procedurals.