Shutterbug (Willows & Parker Mysteries) - Tapa blanda

Vancouver’s streets are awash with unusually pure heroin. Addicts are dying like flies, but in this port city at the far end of the continent, junkies are a dime a baker’s dozen, and nobody’s counting. Then several dealers join the parade of the newly dead – and all of them worked for ancient crime kingpin Jake Cappalletti. The cops sniff a pattern.

Then there’s April. She was lap-dancing when she met Wayne. He swept her off her feet at the end of her shift, just as soon as he’d finished dumping her parasitic ex-boyfriend into the trunk of his Caddy. Part of Wayne’s appeal is his raw ambition. He intends to replace Jake.

April wants to be a contributing factor in her new man’s climb to the top. When the killing stops, Wayne’s going to need a fall guy, somebody to play multiple-murderer-for-a-day. So April kidnaps Lewis, a semi-successful con artist, and teaches him some very bad habits. Wayne’s so busy with murder and mayhem that he neglects April, and pretty soon she starts to believe she might be falling in love with Lewis.

But, as usual, she could be wrong.

Meanwhile, as the homicide squad engages in an intensive hunt for the most prolific killer in the city’s history, police detectives Jack Willows and Claire Parker have other – more personal – concerns. Willows, finally divorced, is free to marry Parker. But sometimes freedom’s just another word for plenty left to lose. Claire wants children; Jack already has two. As the investigation heats up, Willows believes that he and Parker won’t have time to spare for nagging domestic issues.

Like April, he could be wrong.

Laurence Gough, who lives with his wife and two children in Vancouver, has written twelve Willows and Parker mysteries: The Goldfish Bowl, winner of an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel from the Crime Writers of Canada; Death on a No. 8 Hook; Hot Shots, winner of an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year; Serious Crimes; Accidental Deaths; Fall Down Easy; Killers; Heartbreaker; Memory Lane; Karaoke Rap; Shutterbug; and Funny Money. His international thriller, Sandstorm, won the Author Award (fiction) from the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters in 1991.
From the Hardcover edition.