Murder escalates to cloak-and-dagger intrigue, disrupting the placid off-season in this cozy seaside mystery.
The third entry in the Oceanic Park Mystery series takes place at the onset of winter, 2005. Ned Johnston by now has relocated to where he grew up, opting for a simpler life with a modest law practice to which he can walk from his home, a refurbished fisherman’s cottage. A bit of a luddite, he eschews cell phones and pulls out a stowed away Vespa when it’s too far to walk.
While Ned lives alone, he is socially active in the community, including the socializing that comes with one of his rituals: morning at Java Joe’s Coffee Cafe to consume breakfast and the news. In the local paper he reads of the death of an acquaintance, Chaz Guidry, from an apparent drug overdose. Then at his office, he’s visited by Chaz’s widow seeking his help to prove it was murder.
From scant clues Chaz left, Ned learns the former journalist was investigating a local and highly secretive jet service. Further digging reveals its links to a local crime family, heroin smuggling, and the CIA practice of extraordinary rendition. A big story that was to be Chaz’s redemption, his path back to the heights of his foreign correspondent career, before a sniper wound while in Sarajevo led to PTSD.
Coincidentally, or not, Ned is approached by people looking for Sophia Ambrosetti, a woman who reportedly died in a boat explosion. It’s complicated because he knows she’s alive for she was also his lover until “it turned out that, in addition to being a singer and musician, she also was an investigator and researcher who specialized in forensic accounting and asset tracing.”
As if that isn’t enough, Ned also advocates on behalf of a group of mobile home owners facing displacement by an aggressive developer. Furthermore, a group of vandals disrupts Christmas events. A parallel mystery is determining how and why all these events are converging, or if they’re connected at all.
Both story and series have a solid foundation in Ned’s profession, which uniquely suits him to conduct amateur sleuthing. It inserts him in the locals’ lives in an intimate way if needed, and it gives him a higher degree of standing (albeit reluctantly) with authorities and the knowhow to get what he needs out of them. This makes Ned a trusted citizen and authoritative narrator, notwithstanding a few dubious decisions that reveal his impetuous side.
Another aspect of Ned is reflected in the writing style, which is effective in presenting the story in a clear, unambiguous manner. The convention of a chapter for a day, like an edited journal, is one a lawyer might adopt in laying down the background for a case or for a witness statement. Including the verbatim inclusion of artifacts (signs, newspaper articles, etc.) as well as consistency in sharing details, with a general avoidance of pronouns or apposite substitutes.
This approach can feel odd and a little stiff at times in terms of storytelling. The precision does ensure all that’s going on is kept in order without hindering conveying the charming aura of Oceanic Park. The town comes across as homey, even in the darkening days leading to the winter solstice. The same goes for its residents with whom one becomes familiar quickly.
Other than referencing his relationship with Sophia—there’s not much about that—Ned shares little about himself. That relationship and his own story were presumably covered in the earlier books. Other than that, there’s no sense of having missed much for not reading the first two books.
In the Bleak Midwinter has all the hallmarks of a cozy mystery branching into a suspense-thriller territory with global flair. With a sweeping scope, from the quirky locals to drug runners to an international crime gang and plenty in between. The lucid narrative brings clarity to a multi-layered plot inhabited by a myriad of unique characters.
What did you think?