Dialogue so sharp you could cut your tongue on it. That’s what makes this second novel by Howard Shrier so appealing. His fictional gumshoe Jonah Geller needs to solve the problem of a young girl who apparently committed suicide by leaping from the balcony of a high rise apartment. He’s not so sure the girl did herself in — it may have been a murder.
Geller, who runs an agency called World Repairs — a silly name for a investigation agency — also uncovers some serious hanky-panky around a massive development on the Toronto waterfront. Most of the questions lead back to a developer living in Chicago. So Geller makes a visit. Almost immediately, someone tries to kill him. He guesses he must be on the right track. The developer, Simon Bird, is in business with the dead girl’s father. Geller eventually figures all of it out, but not before more violence and death. — Ken Kilpatrick, Guelph Mercury
