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Barrington Street Blues

by Anne Emery

After reading this third installment of the curious adventures of Halifax lawyer (and occasional blues player) Monty Collins, I couldn’t help wondering how Collins would fare if he found himself at the imaginative mercy of thriller writers other than his creator, Anne Emery. In a John Grisham novel he’d have to put down the blues guitar and dig his way out of a deep hole, only to be vindicated in heroic fashion at the end. Or, if imagined by Scott Turow, poor Monty would be asked to face and overcome monumental betrayals.

As Emery envisions him, however, Monty is no archetypal hero, just a highly flawed and endearing human being. When asked to represent the victims of an alleged murder-suicide, Monty puts on his inquisitive hat and leisurely investigates. He also continues to build on his unlikely friendship with hard-drinking and irascible priest Brennan Burke, first forged in Emery’s Arthur Ellis Award-winning debut, Sign of the Cross.

Emery spends most of the book showing the painfully poignant ways in which Monty attempts to rebuild his relationship with his not-quite-ex-wife Maura, mother of their two irrepressible children. The yin-yang of Monty and Maura, from cruel barbs to tender moments, is rendered in occasionally hilarious but mostly heartbreaking fashion. Emery makes it easy to root for Monty, who solves not only the mystery that pays the bills, but also the one that tugs at his heart.

 

Reviewer: Sarah Weinman

Publisher: ECW Press

DETAILS

Price: $24.95

Page Count: 336 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-55022-813-7

Released: April

Issue Date: 2008-4

Categories: Fiction: Novels