A Year Less a Day

Henry G. MacLeod teaches sociology at both Trent University and the
University of Waterloo.

A missing husband, a wife accused of murder, and a cast of comical
characters is a good plot synopsis for James Hawkins’s fourth suspense
novel featuring Detective Inspector David Bliss. Ruth Jackson and her
husband, Jordan, run a coffee shop in Vancouver frequented by an
eccentric group of regulars, including RCMP Detective Sergeant Mike
Phillips, first introduced in the previous novel, No Cherubs for
Melanie.

As suggested by the title, events take place over a year. Ruth learns
from her husband that he has only six months to live. Phillips takes an
interest in Ruth and asks his friend Bliss to trace her English father,
a man who seduced her mother at a Beatles concert by claiming to be
George Harrison. Recovering from injuries sustained in the previous
story, Bliss has been reunited with the delightful Miss Daphne Lovelace,
OBE, from the first Bliss mystery.

Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, Ruth reports her dying husband as missing
and finds herself accused of his murder. Phillips tries to clear her,
but it is the zany Trina Button, a homecare worker and close friend from
the coffee shop, who keeps the investigation going.

While helping to trace Ruth’s father, Daphne becomes suspicious of
whether a visiting neighbour is who he claims to be. Alternating between
Daphne and Trina, readers will find a suspenseful and amusing story,
with many twists and subplots. Hawkins’s darker writing appears
briefly as Ruth becomes a victim of police brutality while under arrest.

Bliss has his role to play but shares the action in this intriguing,
complex mystery. Hawkins, a retired U.K. police commander before
settling in Canada, shows his love of coffee-shop regulars and uses his
familiarity with Canadian and English settings well.