Customer Reviews

Tapas on the Ramblas (Russell Quant Mysteries)

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I was first drawn to this book by its cover - bright, curious, attractive, interesting, didn't quite know what it was but it looked like I might want to.

As it turns out, the cover is the sun rising behind one of Antoni Gaudi's most famous (and still in the works) creations: La Sagrada Familia. Sure, not something you see everyday - but pretty darn cool. Just like this cover, the sun rises on a new writer who is telling a new story in a new bright and exciting way.

I began Tapas on the Ramblas with little expectation. True, I like mystery, and I like books with some gay content. I read a lot of both or in combination and I've come to expect the same the same the same. Immediately I was thrown off guard. This hero, Russell Quant (I love that name!) is from someplace in Canada called Saska-something, I can't even spell it. It's in Canada. But immediately from the sight of him sitting behind his desk watching a golden ray of sunshine pierce his office window, I am hooked. This guy is so real. And he stays that way from page one to the end.

Then there's all this stuff about his life, his friends and mother and his house and dogs and I want to know more - but instead he gets thrust into this case that takes him away from all that and puts him on a gay cruise in the Mediterranean - and he's afraid of water!

Enter Charity Wiser. A client to beat all clients. She's Katherine Hepburn (fifteen years ago and very much alive but full of the same piss and vinegar), wears cool clothes, doesn't give a hoot what anyone thinks, drinks like a fish, is rich and is in love with a block of a woman named Dottie Blocka.

Someone in the Wiser clan wants to knock off the matriarch to get their hands on the cash. Sounds like an old story, and it is - but welcome to the 2005, gay, Spanish, Italian, Canadian, Anthony Bidulka version of it. What a trip.

The author is obviously well adept at writing humor - I suspect if I were to search deep enough that is his background - maybe a sitcom writer?, the wry, dry, guffaw and every other type of laugh abound aplenty.

I must say I stopped really trying to solve the mystery, not because it wasn't compelling, but because I did not want the story to end - each scene gave me something new to appreciate and think about. An endless Meditteranean cruise - what a dream - with the brave and hunky Russell Quant running about in his tuxedo or white cotton pants and muscle T chasing bad guys and barely escaping death. Love it. There were so many small nuances to appreciate - from the love story of Charity and Dottie, the growing pains in the relationship between Russell and Errall, the mystery behind Sereena Orion Smith - SOS - get it? Alberta the pyschic described as a gypsy Jann Arden - I love it - she's a Canadian singer who I've only just heard about and she is fantastic by the way - and Russell himself - he is a bit of mystery to me, I felt close to him, like he was revealing himself to the reader - but still holding back.

Obviously I love books and dissecting them. Even if you don't - give this a try - just for fun - you won't be disappointed.

Russell Quant quickly establishes himself as the reader's friend; someone you want to spend time with, get to know, ask him what he thinks about things, go out and have a drink with. So by the time he is pulled into a merry mystery, the reader is more than willing to jump along in it with him - not only to discover whodunit but to be in the company of this witty and quirky and charming young man.

Tapas on the Ramblas is the third outing for Russell Quant and each time it just gets better. This time he is called upon by Charity Wiser (a most wonderfully created client), who asks him to join her aboard the Friends of Dorothy luxury cruiseliner traveling from Barcelona to Rome. She wants him to discover which member of her weird and wacky family is trying to pull her plug to get their inheritence early. Toss in a collection of interesting boat-mates, a sexy travel planner, treacherous thugs in every port, more than a fair bit of stylish clothes-wearing, bright chitter-chatter, delectable dining, luscious local colour and vacation-inspiring sight-seeing and we have Tapas on the Ramblas and a really good time for the lucky reader.

Don't miss it. And if it's your first Russell Quant, do yourself a favor and go back to the first, Amuse Bouche, and second, Flight of Aquavit, and take a little trip to France and New York and Pike Lake, Saskatchewan. It's all a blast and lovely story-telling.

Anthony Bidulka sure knows how to keep his readers on their toes and wanting more. I am a big fan of mystery series - but I admit to losing interest after the first few if the author is simply retreading the same old characters doing the same old thing in the same old places. Not a problem in the Russell Quant series. With each of the three books so far in this series, Amuse Bouche, Flight of Aquavit and now the awesome Tapas on the Ramblas - Bidulka moves forward with the characters, he changes things up, he adds spicy new characters, he changes setting and tone - but never at the expense of the quality of writing, humour, pathos and entertainment value and by always paying attention to characters we've grown to love. Thank you Mr. Bidulka - Tapas on the Rmablas is the best yet and I greatly look forward to more.

I like this book for many reasons. Good mystery. Good humour. Some touching scenes. I've decided I want to go on a Med cruise. Lots of characters to remember - I loved Phyllis, Sereena, Errall and of course, Russell is my man! This is a series I will definitely follow.

I have been a fanof Mr. Bidulka since the first in the series, Amuse Bouche, and I can safely say they just keep on getting better. Mr. Bidulka is an author who takes good care of his readers. He knows that he is there to entertain, at times baffle, amuse and stimulate the people who open his books - not through science or technical expertise or celebrity but through good old story telling.

By this third book I have come to know well that I can safely expect to have a good time with a Russell Quant mystery and Mr. Bidulka knows how not to be a complacent writer - he delivers the goods we love without falling into the trap of repitition or staying within the comfortable mold he himself created - he always tries something new. This time he's taken us out of Saskatchewan (although he never forgets to add the subtle tinges to remind us Russell is and always will be a Saskatchewan boy)and onto a cruise ship of luxury and murder.

I was giddy with excitement when I read the teasers - a wealthy client the target of a greedy relative willing to murder for early inheritance - a shipful of suspects - all played out against the dazzling backdrop of the salty ports of the Mediterranean. And he brings it on. Imagine the Love Boat meets Hercule Poirot meets Queer as Folk meets the Travel Channel. Mr. Bidulka brings it all, treating his reader to a challenging whodunit with more than one twist, a dash of tenderness, a speckle of tragedy, and more than a splash of excitement and good humor.

I so enjoy these books, I just really enjoy them - good fun unpretentious entertainment with smidgens of complexity that make for good thinking long after the last page is turned.

Every so often I pick up a book with little knowledge of the content or writer and thus, low expectations, and by the end of it find myself having fallen in love with reading all over again.

Tapas on the Ramblas, and its author Anthony Bidulka, have done this for me. (And I can tell you that I've now gone back to where this series all began and it does not disappoint).
Bidulka is a charming writer who knows how to pull the reader along at a brisk pace - I tend to speed read if I'm bored, or think, oh yes, I've read this before - but that is never the case in all three Russell Quant mysteries. Not only is it the inventiveness of the characters we meet, or the unique locales, or the mystery itself, but it is also the obvious love affair the writer has with telling his tale as if desperately wanting to share with us every nuance and smell and sight and sound of the story without overwhelming us with detail or leading us too far astray from what this book (and series) are really about: a jolly good reading experience. I repeat what many have already said in this venue: I anxiously await the next Russell Quant Mystery.

I received this book as a gift from a friend who discovered the author with his first book, Amuse Bouche, and she has been a fan ever since. I've always trusted her judgement. She said, start it on a Friday after work, because you won't want to put it down until you're done. I did what I was told and boy was she right.

What followed was a most enjoyable read that filled my weekend. I even bowed out of a matinee movie with friends (I hope none of you are reading this) on saturday afternoon to stay with Russell and his band of merry fairy men and women on the Friends of Dorothy Cruiseliner as it steamed its luxurious way from Minorca to Tunisia and Sicily and eventually back to Saskatoon, Canada.

I hadn't so much fun since my own last holiday away (fortunately I experienced no murders on my trip - but thats what reading is for). And that's what this book is all about - gifting the reader with an experience we might (probably won't) have in our own lives - the excitement, the danger, the sexy men...well, maybe we can have some of it?

I started with the title of this reveiw being, "Move to the top of your reading pile" - but really its should be, "This is what reading is for".

I'm new to this series - but like what Russell says about peanuts - after one Russell Quant its hard to stop devouring them. What a hoot. The travel in Tapas on the Ramblas to Spain and Italy and all points in between is awesome and the adventures at each port of call had me on edge with either concern for my guy Russell or the babe witch Errall, or with laughter. I am definitely a Friend of Dorothy. Charity Wiser - his client - gotta meet her. End is a killer cliffhanger. More!

Finally a book that is even more than it promises to be. It is indeed a mystery, and it is a good beach book, escapism at its best, but I found it to be much more. This is a story about a young man who takes control of this fate, quits his regular paycheck job as a cop and becomes a private eye in a small prairie city where flashy cases are few and far between. Russell Quant is a tough guy, but sensitive, he's all out funny, he's caring of his family and friends, he's gay the way someone is tall - he just is - and he always gets the bad guy in the end. But before he does, we are treated to some fine story telling, a few laughs, some good travel and food and wine tips, and some mystery. What more can a reader ask for?

Bidulka had me at page 1 with the slanted spears of gilded sunshine piercing his office window - a peaceful image left in the dust when Russell Quant ends up traveling to Barcelona and nervously boarding (he's a prairie boy after all) a cruiseship in the hopes of identifying the person intent on killing his doozy of a client: wealthy, cynical, wildly inappropriate 80 year old Charity Wiser. Nothing is as it seems as Russell steams from Spain to Northern Africa to Italy, but the action and adventure follows him wherever he goes.
The author writing style is unique, fast-paced yet rich in detail about the sights and smells and sounds of the fantastic locations, making it difficult to put the book down. The story ends all too soon and leaves you with a bit of a roller coaster feel - just when you thought it was over...