Old City Hall: 03/05/19

Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg is the first of the Detective Greene mystery series set in modern day Toronto. I've started the series because he wrote one of my favorite episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, "Murdoch Schmurdoch."

The book opens with an Indian delivering the morning papers to 12B. He's a couple minutes early, which bothers him. The door is ajar and when he finally gets the attention of the man living there, the man admits to killing his wife.

The narrative is set up in a style similar to the Law and Order shows, in that there are the detectives investigating and then there is the trial. That's fine but the book jumps between numerous points of view even though at most there should be two main characters — the detective and the defense, should the initially accused be innocent.

I have to admit that I ended up skipping most of the POVs that weren't from either of these points of view. There's really to the other scenes that are crucial for understanding the flow of the plot or the unfolding of the investigation or trial.

There's also annoying subplot, that thankfully doesn't go anywhere, involving the accused son. He happens to autistic and Greene speculates that he committed the murder while having a violent meltdown. Just no. Thankfully he didn't end up doing it. Had it been the murderer, this review would be a lot longer and angrier.

The second book in the series is The Guilty Plea (2011).

Three stars

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Wednesday, March 06, 2019 at 22:39:50

Teena in Toronto

I liked this book and this series :)

Comment #2: Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 20:55:00

Pussreboots

I have book two out from the library now. I'll be reading it soon.