Description:
An exciting second installment in the Doctor Annick Boudreau Mystery Series, the endearing and unflappable Dr. Boudreau returns in this complex and nuanced portrait of psychology and a city.
When Dr. Boudreau is contacted by the Vancouver Police and informed that her patient Danielle has been reported missing and there's a suicide note, Dr. Boudreau is shaken. Danielle, who was being treated for a major depressive episode, had been doing well--talking about her new relationship and the contract she just completed as a speechwriter for a bike-riding politician's successful mayoral campaign.
Dr. Boudreau is, once again, on a mission to discover what really happened and joins forces with Danielle's estranged father Ivor, a former radical journalist turned right-wing blogger. Along the way, the realpolitik is illuminated in a clash over the Knight Street trucking route, protected by the Satan's Hammer Motorcycle Club, who have a strong presence on the waterfront and refuse to relinquish the port traffic to the suburbs.
Discover the clash and charisma of a city embroiled in politics in this twisting and turning story. Charles Demers renders a divisive cityscape entangled in questions of ownership and change--who owns the city and who has the right to change it--with humour, edge and compassion, revealing the intricacies of a metropolis on the verge of myriad transformations.
Brief description:
Charles Demers is an author, comedian, voice actor, and
playwright. He is one of the most frequently returning stars of CBC Radio's
smash-hit comedy The Debaters, with a weekly
listening audience of 750,000. His collection of essays, Vancouver
Special (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009), was shortlisted for the
Hubert Evans Non- Fiction Prize. He is also the author of The
Horrors (Douglas & McIntyre, 2015), Property
Values (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018) and Primary Obsessions (Douglas & McIntyre, 2020). The latter is Demers' first book in the
Doctor Annick Boudreau Mystery Series, for which he draws upon his own
long-time experience with cognitive behavioural therapy. Demers lives in
Vancouver, BC, with his wife and daughter.
Review Quotes:
"...excellent sequel to 2020's Primary Obsessions... Demers makes the amateur sleuthing believable, and populates the supporting cast with well-developed characters, both major and minor. This clever and empathic series merits a long run." --Publishers Weekly
"It's not just the central relationship between doctor and patient that gives the story an interesting twist, but also the nature of therapy itself, with its tools and methodologies that can be applied to solving mysteries as well as plumbing the depths of the human psyche. Even here, there is a Demersian aesthetic at work--funny, personal and transformative ..."--Dorothy Woodend, culture editor for The Tyee
"Dr. Annick Boudreau is a smart, caffeinated heroine whose reckless but earnest drive to save her patient from a murder charge makes for a fast and exciting read from start to finish ... I look forward to her next case!"--Iona Whishaw, author of the Lane Winslow Mystery series
"Demers writes sharp, witty dialogue and delivers a nuanced portrayal of the stigmatization of mental illness in collision with crime."--Nathan Ripley, author of Find You in the Dark