Deadly Legacy (A Carmedy & Garrett Mystery) [Kindle Edition]

Deadly Legacy is an honest to goodness Mystery patterned after early mystery writers Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe. The story, however, is set on 21st century Canadian soil. Putting a finger on the genre is tricky: Mystery/Police Procedural/Sci-Fi/touch of Romance. Maybe.

The main characters, police detective Kate Garrett and private eye Jake Carmedy have one thing in common: Kate's father. Wait, two things - they don't much like each other. Or do they? Their working relationship reflects neither Scully & Mulder nor Bones & Booth. Theirs is a unique non-partnership, with plenty of potential.

This Police Procedural is written with attention to well-researched detail of law enforcement technique. The "whodunit" mystery portion of the novel is laid out with thought provoking precision. Evident throughout the story is author Alison Bruce's first hand knowledge of Canadian life and her artistic talent for storytelling.

As the story unfolds, Kate Garrett must guard her emotions while she determines the cause of her father's death. Did someone arrange to have him killed, or was police officer turned private investigator Joe Garrett's death an accident? Kate's investigation leads her to several potential suspects, a disturbing underground drug activity, and plenty of unanswered questions.

Joe Garrett's partner in Garrett Investigations is Jake Carmedy. With Joe dead, Jake's job is in limbo; he is now half-owner of a company that may have no future. He continues the investigation into three murders that Joe started and was working on the day he died. Jake's case holds clues to the investigation opened by Kate Garrett, who is the other half-owner of Garrett Investigations.

Deadly Legacy is another of those first-in-a-mystery-series novels I look forward to following.

Kate Garrett works as a police detective in a city in southwestern Ontario. She's in the midst of a drug-related homicide investigation when she gets the worst news possible: her father Joe has been hit by a car and killed. A retired police officer himself, Joe had since turned to running his own private investigation service. Was it his most recent case that put him in harm's way? Or was this merely a tragic accident?

While Kate and Joe's business partner Jake Carmedy grieve separately for their loss, they both begin to puzzle out what Joe had been working on. A tension from the past prevents them from working together, at first. But as additional deaths take place, both find too many threads that lead to the offices of Touchstone Insurance. With the backup of friends and professional colleagues in the local police department, Kate and Jake are able to collar the ultimate perpetrator in the end. Whether they will be able to work well as a team from this point on, is anyone's guess. The dynamic between the two could develop, change, and go in any number of different directions, as the pair takes on new cases.

A special nuance to this story is that it takes place over the course of ten days in November 2018. Kate and her fellow officers therefore use better computer technology than we have now (in 2012) to gather and process information. Security measures in both private and public buildings have been stepped up a notch as well. Otherwise, this book that is set in the future -- for now -- is not overly "futuristic." After all: any such mystery and police procedural boils down to uncovering the vagaries of human behavior. That idea transcends time.

"Deadly Legacy" sets a good scene for further episodes in the series. Kate Garrett is a likable character who deserves to have more adventures. As mentioned above, her budding business relationship with Jake Carmedy is one that has potential. The author chooses not to name their city in this book. I believe it would help firm up the readers' imaginations if she did, and if we were told a bit more about the place. What with the various investigations and the wakes and funerals of all of the deceased, several more minor characters show up here than are probably necessary. Readers may have a tough time deciphering and remembering which ones are more important than others.

Overall, this book is an intriguing first episode that should have readers wishing and hoping for a quick sequel. We want to tag along with Kate and Jake on at least another outing.

[This review was based on seeing a paperback copy, compliments of the author, in exchange for a fair assessment of the work.]

An intricate weaving of a celebration of life and the results of sudden death, this book with its intriguing characters is sure to pull the reader in like a whirlpool. With ingenious plotting, prickly relationships, futuristic technology and bodies dropping like flies, Alison Bruce has a knack for descriptive narrative that breathes life right into the scene. The landscape, streets, murder scenes and characters rich and poor, are all clearly established in the mind. Set in the winter of 2018, there is plenty of opportunity the author to play with technological possibilities.

From the opening scene in a cold muddy field with a rookie cop gathering evidence from the drugged vicious rape of a young girl in the hope of saving her life, to the sudden accidental death of Joe Garrett, the very popular retired ex-cop turned private investigator, and coincidentally the father of Kate, the rookie cop who was working in that muddy field, the story appears to go in many directions, but does it really?

It's been a very difficult and emotional day for Kate and there are many decisions for her to make, not the least of which is whether to remain with the police force or to take over her father's business, as his will splits ownership between Kate and Jake Carmedy, Joe's business partner. Unfortunately, Kate and Jake do not get along, but a hidden undercurrent they aren't aware of seems to promise a hot romance in the future. In the meantime Kate is going to have to take over the current case Joe was working on, as well as pursuing the police case of the now declared murdered girl.

Alison Bruce's writing almost takes on a life of its own as it weaves in and out of these relationships and cases. The murdered girl died of prescription drugs, Joe died from a car accident, while following a man for his protection, a man who claimed he had been threatened. But why was this man threatened? It didn't make sense. Yet bodies and coincidences begin to pile up even while both police and family friends are mourning Joe's death.

When do coincidences become conspiracies? Joe's death seems unrelated, but why do the murders appear to have commonalities? The action is rapid-paced, the suspects are many and unusual, and the story is compelling as it gets deeper into the mystery. It all comes down to a perfectly Agatha Christie-esque finish with all suspects in one room. Yet we are left with the question, are Kate and Jake going to be able to put aside their antagonism? Will they? won't they? Can they make this partnership work? With the ultimately odd backdrop of the Santa Claus parade going by, surely anything can happen!