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The writing is lean, linear, and concise
Anne Emery certainly has a good thing going. With the popularity of murder-mysteris at an all-time high, the Halifax-based author has enjoyed an exceptionally strong run in recent times, thanks in large part to her years of experience as a lawyer, legal affairs reporter, and researcher. And though her 2006 debut, Sign of the Cross, picked up the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel, and last year's follow-up, Obit, was well received by both critics and the general reading public, both works screamed with possibilities for more.
Thankfully, with her latest book, Barrington Street Blues, Emery has begun to realize her potential for narrative with a solid story of suspense long on mystery and short on excess. This is the third book in the author's highly entertaining Monty Collins series, and it revolves around the killing of two men outside a bar in downtown Halifax. Though local police are convinced the slayings are the result of a murder-suicide, Collins, who is representing the victim's families, has reason to suspect it might be a case of double-murder.
Collins's ensuing investigations lead him down several murky paths into the city's seedy bars and back alleys. Along the way, the lawyer-bluesman comes across a cast of sleazy characters, eventually coming face-to-face with his own lurking shadows.
Barrington Street Blues, provides clear evidence that Emery is coming into her own as a storyteller. The writing is lean, linear, and concise, allowing the storyline to flow with an ease that was perhaps missing from her two previous works. As well, her understated treatment of setting gives credence to the theory that less detail can often mean more mood, as subtle sketches of Halifax's sickly underbelly slowly draw readers into the shady world of drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling, prostitution, and blackmail.
However, it is perhaps Emery's use of character dialogue that gives the book its weight, masterfully chronicling Collins's slow descent into his own personal underworld. It is here that the heaviness of the tale unfolds, as readers are forced to confront the demons that drive the dark side of our humanity.
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