Mother Love (Karl Alberg Mysteries, No. 7) [Hardcover]

Laurali Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 1995

Returning to an embittered family seven years after a mysterious abandonment, Maria Buscombe is murdered while attempting to contact her daughter, and Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg must seek the truth about why she went into isolation. 12,500 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar winner Wright has crafted another complex psychological study featuring worldly-wise Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg of the Canadian Mounties (last seen in A Touch of Panic). "Leave the past alone, Maria. The past is past and done with." So writes the mother of Maria Buscombe?but she's wrong. A middle-aged housewife and the mother of a 14-year-old girl, Maria lives in a seemingly serene town in British Columbia, content with her life until the past catches up to her in the form of a long-hidden family secret. Wright starts awkwardly, leaving readers to sort through an unnecessarily confusing opening that switches between time periods and characters whose relationships are not made clear until later. Eventually, however, the plot makes its unhurried but sure-footed way to its final, terrible destination, exposing the reasons behind an especially senseless and cruelly timed murder. Modest as ever, Alberg spends much of his time offstage until his insights are needed to explain, among other puzzles, why Maria abandoned her family for seven years. Readers may not be surprised by this beautifully written tale's resolution, but they will very likely be moved by it.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Maria Buscombe deserts her family when she discovers the history of her natural parents. After seven years, she decides to contact her daughter, but someone kills Maria before they can connect. Series star Mountie Karl Alberg wants to know why. Wright (Prized Possessions, Viking, 1993) delves into the psyches of Maria, who seems to have been missing a screw or two; her daughter, Belinda, who plans to leave her husband; and Karl, who contemplates early retirement while sheltering his post-traumatic love-interest Cassandra. A contemplative and psychologically intense story that also focuses on character development and motivation. Recommended.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684196735
• ISBN-13: 978-0684196732
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, December 23, 2000

By 

Glenn McLeod - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother Love (Karl Alberg Mysteries, No. 7) (Hardcover)

Mother Love by L.R.Wright Seal Books 1995

I have read several other L.R.Wright mysteries and liked them very much. This one was not up to the high standards set by the others.

In this Karl Alberg mystery, a murdered woman had left husband and 13 year old daughter seven years previously with only a smidgen of a note that told hardly anything of why she left. Karl will not rest until he has solved the puzzle relating to her death and disappearance. The story is a bit contrived and moves at a very slow pace.

The long standing romance of Karl and Cassandra Mitchel has picked up finally and they have decided to get married and have begun house hunting. As always, L.R.Wright's description of Sechelt is vivid and evocative and adds immeasurably to the story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful police procedural, February 2, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mother Love (Paperback)

Edgar award-winning author Wright (The Suspect) offers an absorbing police procedural with emoitonal depth.

Maria Bascombe abandoned her daughter and husband seven years earlier. On the day she decides to re-enter their lives, she is murdered.

Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg, of the Canadian Mounties, probes the dead woman's past to find her killer. Why did she disappear? And who was paying her $20,000 a year? Who was sending her an annual photograph of her daughter?

As Alberg delves, the narrative shifts into the past, to Maria's own investigation of the secrets kept from her by well-meaning adoptive parents. Maria's dark discoveries seem to shed ugly light on aspects of herself that frighten her. Chance and greed enter the mix, precipitating action.

Meanwhile, Alberg is contemplating reluctant retirement to marry Cassandra Mitchell, still recovering from her ordeal in "Touch Of Panic". Wright uses the mystery form to examine the secrets and mistaken assumptions in all human relationships from the most loving to the most venal.

She creates an atmosphere of bleak inevitability impelled by the characters' inability to communicate. While this structure robs the story of some suspense, Wright intrigues the reader with her thoughtful characterizations and the mysteries of human behavior.