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The Worst Dogs: A Progressive Murder-Mystery by Matthew de Lacey Davidson (view source)
Revision as of 08:19, 25 July 2020
, 08:19, 25 July 2020no edit summary
The title of this enjoyable crime procedural, is from German romantic writer Jean Paul Richter. But who are the worst dogs in de Lacey Davidson's latest novel and for whom is the hatred? This mystery will last all the way to the very last and carefully plotted pages but you will be thinking about unwarranted hatred all the way through. It sounds uncomfortable - but it isn't: it's honest.
We're in Nova Scotia in the Canadian Maritimes and a woman is out jogging when she makes an horrific discovery - bodies, dismembered, burnt. The Detective Sergeant sent to investigate this crime is Natalya Stone, a black American police officer originally from Chicago. Local constable Zev Arendt - Jewish and gay - is assigned to assist her. Zev is intelligent and capable and keen to learn. Natalya is a little world weary but blunt and direct and terrifically good at her job. The small town of Feckless Bay is probably not ready for her - ''Murder's not an entertainment. It's filthy, malodorous'' she says to Zev, when he can't hold his stomach at the crime scene.
Very quickly, the detectives realise that these murders, and others, are likely the work of a serial killer and probably motivated by hate. But all their leads go nowhere and the case proves hard to solve. Along the way, Natalya tutors Zev in the skills a detective needs and the pair discuss the endemic racism, anti-semitism and homophobia they have encountered in both the US and Canada, as even their investigation throws up countless examples.