| Description: |
|
From Amazon
A feisty heroine, a cast of oddball characters, and a plot to keep the pages turning combine to make The Icing on the Corpse, Mary Jane Maffini's second Camilla MacPhee mystery, a winner. Set in Ottawa, the ice-bound capital of Canada, the story features the world's longest skating rink and a city shivering in midwinter. It's appropriate that the primary "stiff"--a serial batterer who had been stalking his former girlfriend--is found frozen to death in an ice sculpture. Camilla, a lawyer with the Justice for Victims organization, has a mouth like a truck driver and a quick, quirky mind. To save a good friend from being charged with the icy murder, she is forced to use all her wiles and a variety of extra-legal measures, along with the surprisingly able assistance of her employee, Alvin, who wears Day-Glo leis and nine earrings, and the ancient, chain-smoking Mrs. Parnell--Dr. Watson with a walker. Meanwhile, Camilla does everything in her power to avoid her sister's upcoming wedding, the disapproving eye of the local police, and being murdered herself. Snappy dialogue, lots of good humour, and just enough blood to stain the snow ensure a fine, smooth, chilling read. They don't call it "the dead of winter" for nothing. --Mark Frutkin
|
