The Suspect

By: L. R. Wright

Narrated by: Peter Outerbridge, Kristin Kreuk, John Nelles

From the doyenne of detective novels and the inspiration for the major TV series Murder in a Small Town (starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk), the first Karl Alberg detective story, where life on the Sunshine Coast isn't as sunny as it seems. Murder in a Small Town will air Tuesdays this Fall on FOX and Global TV.

For fans of Shetland and Broadchurch, British Columbia's Sunshine Coast isn't always so sunny for Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg. To Karl Alberg a quiet coastal town is exactly what he needs to soothe a psyche that's been battered by big-city police work. But this gentle paradise has more than its share of secrets. Bees buzz among the roses, and the local librarian is attractive, intriguing, and unattached. Perhaps he has at last come in from the cold. But a murder in small town can conceal a lot of secrets --some of them bleak enough to make a man yearn for some nice straightforward urban crime. Karl will need to call upon all the skills that made him a world-class detective in solving the murders that, even in this seemingly idyllic setting, continue to wash up on his shore.

Great mystery with more depth than usual

I came to this book after watching the TV show “Murder in a Small Town” that was based on the Alberg books. I found that I really liked this first book. To begin with, I realized that this book was written in the mid-1980s which was when I was graduating high school and starting university in the Vancouver area, so this book felt a bit like a blast from my past. In this story, we know from the start who the killer is, but we don’t know why and the protagonist police staff sergeant, Karl Alberg, doesn’t know who the killer is either. And so the story follows Alberg as he investigates the case, and as he does so, we also learn the true motive. As this unfolds, we learn the bigger picture and come to understand why the deed was done. There is also a budding relationship between Alberg and the local librarian, Cassandra, which gets complicated by her friendship with the killer. It made for a very satisfying read. For those interested, I thought that the TV show was a pretty faithful adaptation of this first book anyway, all things considered.

Loved the voice actors

Loved the voice actors and the story. Came to listen after watching the beginning of the show. I'm really excited to listen to more!

unbelievably bad

Flat, boring, dull, stupid, nothing to recommend here. Skip this one, a waste of time.