Customer Reviews

Lullaby for the Nameless (Nolan, Hart & Tain Thrillers)

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The end of The Frailty of Flesh was so depressing. This book isn't lighthearted, but I was glad to get the background on the first case the three characters worked on together. The author blended the plots from the first two books very well for the plot for this third book. I really like all of these characters, so I look forward to finding out what happens next. I love that nothing is predictable in Ruttan's novels!

Part I of this newest entry in the Canadian Constables series had me feeling somewhat at a disadvantage, referring as it does in large part to events that took place three years in the past, including a serial killer investigation which continues to haunt the three protagonists. When the dead body of a young girl is discovered, it appears to follow the pattern of that killer's victims, and the horrors which they had tried to bury from that earlier time are suddenly, and sickeningly, revived.

Complicating the current investigation is the fact that the man everyone was convinced was the killer is dead, and another man still in prison. Or did they get it wrong the first time? The three constables, Craig Nolan, Ashlyn Hart, and "Red" Tain, who have a history from what was dubbed the earlier Missing Killer investigation, are joined in the present search, the latter two having been called in for that purpose. At the same time, there is a hunt going on for a man who apparently murdered his estranged wife and three children, only increasing the pressure on all involved.

Things become somewhat clearer in Part II and beyond [and even in the brief prologue], which brings the reader variously back in time from three years ago to eighteen months ago, back to the present, and back again. I have to admit I nearly got whiplash from the sharp shifts in time frame. As well, often the identity of the main person in a given scene wasn't immediately clear to me, at first being referred to only as "he," likewise proving a distraction.

Each of the protagonists has his or her own personal baggage, much of it inter-connected, although I would have preferred to have all of that more fully fleshed out. Tain is the one [or, as he says, 'token'] team member of Aboriginal, or Original Nation, ethnicity, and that subject is at times touched upon. Much of the heart of the book deals with family, especially [but not exclusively] young women and their babies, and the tragedies that can arise from those ties, in moving fashion. This was a very different kind of book, and a very interesting one. I look forward to further entries in the series, which may give the reader even deeper insight into its protagonists.

Two bodies are found far apart; one in the mountainous woods near Kelowna while the other is found in a dumpster. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Detectives Constables Hart and Tain are sent to investigate the corpse in the dumpster while Constable Nolan works the case in the rural area as he is already is near Kelowna as part of a manhunt for deadly Hank Kurtis Jeffers.

The investigations begin to merge though geographically at a distance, but also ties back to that infamous first case that brought a then newbie Hart to work with feuding Tain and Nolan. His role is to keep them from fighting, but they simply kept him on the out. They must work together as they have recently done (see The Frailty of the Flesh and What Burns Beneath), but none of the trio want that as they each remember their stubbornness led to avoidable deaths.

This is a super Canadian police procedural that uses flashbacks to fill in more of the back story that has left the three detectives alienated from one another. The story line is fast-paced from the opening moment readers join Nolan trekking and musing across the mountainous path while thinking of his previous manhunt re murderess Lisa Hamilton. The plot never slows down even with the back story and rotating first person perspective between the three antagonist-constables. Fans will relish this strong investigative thriller enhanced by reading the previous two engagements starring a dysfunctional threesome.

Harriet Klausner