Blunt action, realistically and graphically described and paced with just enough time to catch your breath before the next sudden eruption. Add the right feel for dialogue, a plot and writing that’s just the ideal temperature for a mystery-thriller and you have Buffalo Jump–a debut novel winner by Howard Shrier.
Toronto PI Jonah Geller arrives home prepared to nurse his wounds, emotional and physical, with booze and pain pills. There to help is a contract killer with a deal he can’t refuse–help me and you go on living, don’t help me and…
The killer has been ordered to kill an entire family–husband, wife and child. The husband, that’s the nature of the business. The wife, perhaps collateral damage. But the child is a different matter. Geller’s job is to find out the identity of the contractor.
A scheme to supply Americans with cheaper, life-saving Canadian drugs, a conflict within an organized crime family and Geller’s capacity to attract trouble and annoy his Jewish mother and the local police creates a strangely enduring bond between PI and contract killer.
The result is a debut novel with a well-juggled storyline brimming with dry humour, a cast of oddball characters, and graphic scenes that come alive with action. A must-read for summer. — Don Graves, Hamilton Spectator
