Eric Wright (1) (1929–2015)

Charlie Salter is turning sixty, the age limit for police service. He is gradually being phased out by not getting any new cases to investigate and resolves this by taking on a cold case that he hopes will revive memories of his triumphs before he goes. The victim was a high-profile Toronto lawyer who was one of a poker-playing group, hence the title. The original investigation was unable to get past a red herring but Salter takes a different approach, successfully.

I've been reading this series out of sequence and although this didn't bother me, it was sad to see Charlie go.… (más)

I thoroughly enjoyed this mild mystery penned by two Canadian authors using their famous sleuths, Howard Engel's gentle private investigator Benny Cooperman and Eric Wright's more refined detective Charlie Salter. Benny's help has been sought by his brother Sam, a doctor in a Toronto hospital while Charlie Salter is doing the official police investigation of a high-ranking doctor who has been reported missing. Their progress of he case is given in alternate chapters, while they are unaware of each other. Although the cover looks like a "plain brown wrapper" it shows an appealing illustration by Greg McEvoy with more inside.… (más)

While this was a fictional novel, because it was written in 1986 and showed, repeatedly, the male and police force thinking during 1986, I have marked it as History. I was consistently shocked at the way in which the woman murder was blamed for her own murder by simply being being newly single (separated from her husband) and actively dating. Completely floored.

I'm an avid listener of true crime podcasts and often listen to how the cops treated single woman during this time but to read it in the a novel ... for whatever reason, it truly hit me! I'm going to keep this novel for the "historical" aspect.

Adrianne… (más)