Staff Picks – Barrington Street Blues by Anne Emery

Monty Collins (Barrington Street Blues by Anne Emery) is a personable yet flawed Halifax lawyer. In this third novel in the series, Collins is handling a lawsuit on behalf of the family of a man who apparently committed murder then suicide. He had been resident in a detox program and the facility was to be the focus of the lawsuit. As information began to present itself, Monty became aware that all was not as it seemed and Halifax’s elite had something dastardly to hide.

Montague Collins is a multi-faceted lawyer detective. He’s a blues musician, a chorister in an ecclesiastical choir, a criminal lawyer, a near-divorce broken-hearted husband, and, above all, a family man. Monty is devoted to his children and yearns for a reconciliation with his estranged wife. He works hard and plays hard. He has strong, loyal ties with his friends and a high tolerance for alcohol consumption.

The Halifax setting makes this a wonderful read for us locals. It’s great fun to picture him on Dresden Row, frequenting the Midtown, scurrying to the law courts and even making an appearance at the Spring Garden Road Library to read the newspapers on microfilm!

Emery won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best New Novel for her 2006 Sign of the Cross. She joined the likes of William Deverell, Carol Shields and Peter Robinson.

For more mysteries set in Nova Scotia, you might consider:

Foul Deeds: a Rosalind mystery by Linda Moore
Lucky Strike by Pat Wilson and Kris Wood
Oak Island Affair by Jane Bow
Honour Among Men: an Inspector Green mystery by Barbara Fradkin