Shutterbug - Softcover

Gough, Laurence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0771034296 ISBN 13: 9780771034299

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

"Vancouver is the crime capital of Canada, and her citizens are proud of it, even if they're too bashful to say so. But demographics, the black art of numerologists, play a big part in crime rates. Vancouver's population was aging. It's hard to work up a whole lot of enthusiasm for an eight-hour shift of breaking and entering when your arthritis is absolutely killing you."

That jaunty, offbeat attitude toward crime and criminals goes a long way toward explaining why Laurence Gough's books about Vancouver homicide detectives Jack Willows and Claire Parker--including Memory Lane and Heartbreaker--are so popular in Canada and England, and why they're catching on with shrewd American readers. The cops themselves are original enough to hold our interest, and Gough has a sly way of making his villains dance. In this one, a giant goon called Wayne and his sharper, more deadly girlfriend, April, are more than a match for any of Elmore Leonard's creepy crew. After capturing a smalltime thief named Lewis by zapping him with a Taser, April reassures him that it was only on half-power. "Wayne used this thing on a family of raccoons that was always getting into the garbage.... I was looking at their little bandit heads sticking out of the garbage cans, thinking that they were cuter than Tickle Me Elmo, and then Wayne zapped them, and all of a sudden they looked like a bunch of great big oversized Christmas puddings, all blue flame and flambeau."

Finding out why April and Wayne snatched Lewis, and what it has to do with the sudden deaths of several rival drug dealers, keeps Willows and Parker pretty busy, but they still have time to pursue their romance and plan marriage (reluctantly, in Jack's case--he's just divorced, with two kids). Even in Canada's crime capital, life does have its normal moments. --Dick Adler

From the Back Cover

“With Laurence Gough and his series featuring Vancouver cops Jack Willows and Claire Parker...it’s fine to know you’re about the spend several hours in a world of delicious characterizations, fast, complex plots, and best and most important of all, writing as light and flaky as excellent pie crust.”
–London Free Press

“Laurence Gough is high on anyone’s list of the best authors in Canadian crime writing.”
–Globe and Mail

“[Gough’s] detailed, hardbitten novels have set a new standard in Canadian crime writing.”
–Windsor Star

“Gough has emerged as a master in the hard-boiled tradition.”
–Ottawa Citizen

“[Gough’s]...murder mysteries are of the hard-boiled variety, but with a wickedly twisted brand of black comedy....Wild and wingy rollercoaster rides.”
–Vancouver Sun

“Gough is one of the most inventively reliable bloodsmiths in the trade.”
–The Times (London)

“Gough is a real find....For anyone into hard-boiled American fiction, try heading north of the border for a treat.”
–Vox

“Gough’s work is laced with acid humour and tight-as-a-chokehold prose. If he lived in the U.S., he’d already be a superstar.”
–Daily Post (Liverpool)

About this edition

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0771034296
• ISBN 13: 9780771034299
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 288