raesofsun's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
thepickygirl's review
3.0
From thepickygirl.com:
*I received this from the publisher Pegasus in exchange for an honest review.
DI Hazel Micallef doesn’t believe a bee killed Henry Wiest. The man is a fixture in Kehoe Glenn, and something is off. Found outside a cigarette shop on the First Nations Reserve, Henry’s death is written off as accidental, and the reservation police don’t dig much further than that. Hazel isn’t satisfied. Henry didn’t smoke, and why was he on the reservation in the first place? The more questions she asks, the more disturbing the answers that DI Micallef finds until the resulting chaos can’t be ignored by anyone.
This is the kind of case that news reporters say “rock the small community” with its violence. I received this book in the mail without having heard of it before, I picked it up to read the first couple chapters and spent the ensuing afternoon and evening reading every last page of this book.
A Door in the River is one in a series of mysteries featuring Hazel Micallef, and I could definitely tell I was missing some of her personality and background because this was the first I’d read. Hazel is recovering from back surgery. She’s divorced, and her elderly, ailing mother has moved in with her. There are also a lot of changes going on at work, and I felt a bit in the dark with the references to past work history. However, the lack of background didn’t affect the overall novel (I particularly hate information dumps), which was paced well and extremely suspenseful. The book opens with a girl on the run and a dying man. How she figures into the story is what the rest of the novel works to figure out.
With a little Lisbeth Salander-style revenge and a lot of tension, A Door in the River was a great introduction to Kehoe Glenn and DI Micallef.
[Note: I would recommend beginning this series with the first book, The Calling.]
*I received this from the publisher Pegasus in exchange for an honest review.
DI Hazel Micallef doesn’t believe a bee killed Henry Wiest. The man is a fixture in Kehoe Glenn, and something is off. Found outside a cigarette shop on the First Nations Reserve, Henry’s death is written off as accidental, and the reservation police don’t dig much further than that. Hazel isn’t satisfied. Henry didn’t smoke, and why was he on the reservation in the first place? The more questions she asks, the more disturbing the answers that DI Micallef finds until the resulting chaos can’t be ignored by anyone.
This is the kind of case that news reporters say “rock the small community” with its violence. I received this book in the mail without having heard of it before, I picked it up to read the first couple chapters and spent the ensuing afternoon and evening reading every last page of this book.
A Door in the River is one in a series of mysteries featuring Hazel Micallef, and I could definitely tell I was missing some of her personality and background because this was the first I’d read. Hazel is recovering from back surgery. She’s divorced, and her elderly, ailing mother has moved in with her. There are also a lot of changes going on at work, and I felt a bit in the dark with the references to past work history. However, the lack of background didn’t affect the overall novel (I particularly hate information dumps), which was paced well and extremely suspenseful. The book opens with a girl on the run and a dying man. How she figures into the story is what the rest of the novel works to figure out.
With a little Lisbeth Salander-style revenge and a lot of tension, A Door in the River was a great introduction to Kehoe Glenn and DI Micallef.
[Note: I would recommend beginning this series with the first book, The Calling.]
canadianbookworm's review
3.0
This is the third book in the series featuring OPS officer Hazel Micallef. Here, Hazel is back living with her mother after recovering from back surgery. She is worried about her mother's health, but also her own future. There are plans for the local OPS office in Port Dundas to become a regional centre, with Ray Greene in charge, an officer who had previously worked under Hazel. Hazel is an angry woman, and not a diplomatic one. She tends to be aggressive in her encounters with others, and I found this made her a less sympathetic character for me. But she has a good eye for crime, as shown in the case here.
A local man is found dead, seemingly of a heart attack after an insect bite, but Hazel finds questions around the death. When she digs deeper, she finds her instincts right. This death occurred on the nearby reserve and Hazel immediately butts heads with the reserve police force. Doing her own investigation, she ignores jurisdiction and permissions and forges ahead with the case.
Her small squad shows enthusiasm and gets involved, with one young officer, Wingate, taking large risks to help the victims identified as the investigation moves forward. With the investigation unveiling illegal gambling, prostitution, and human trafficking, we see both local involvement and the international nature. Getting inside the head of one of the human trafficking victims and seeing how the experience affected her attitude toward life was eye-opening.
A local man is found dead, seemingly of a heart attack after an insect bite, but Hazel finds questions around the death. When she digs deeper, she finds her instincts right. This death occurred on the nearby reserve and Hazel immediately butts heads with the reserve police force. Doing her own investigation, she ignores jurisdiction and permissions and forges ahead with the case.
Her small squad shows enthusiasm and gets involved, with one young officer, Wingate, taking large risks to help the victims identified as the investigation moves forward. With the investigation unveiling illegal gambling, prostitution, and human trafficking, we see both local involvement and the international nature. Getting inside the head of one of the human trafficking victims and seeing how the experience affected her attitude toward life was eye-opening.
pgchuis's review
4.0
I loved the first half of this book, but I found the second half sickening in places and implausible in others. My least favourite of the three so far, but the characters are good and I look forward to the next one.
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