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Reviews
On this page you'll find some reviews of Roy's current books: West End Murders, and Murder in the Monashees.
October 2009
from Midwest Book Review
MBR Bookwatch, October 2009
Shelley's Glodowski's Bookshelf
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/oct_09.htm#shelley
Book Review of West End Murders
West End Murders
Roy Innes
NeWest Press, 201-8540-109 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1E6
9781897126271 $12.95
Roy Innes grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. He completed his M.D. at the University of British Columbia, specializing in eye surgery. After a successful career in that area, he attended the Humber School for Writers, and ended up publishing the novel he wrote during his course work. He enjoys off-roading in his Toyota Land Cruiser and touring on his motorcycle.
It is a distinct pleasure to review Roy Innes' second novel. His writing produces book that one does not want to ever end. This is particularly true of his second novel, WEST END MURDERS. Inspector Coswell and RCMP Corporal Paul Blakemore once again team up in this eerie whodunit. The relatively crime-free city of Vancouver isn't used to a serial killer. So when prominent gay men are found murdered, one after the other, it at first seems like a hate crime. But Inspector Coswell, a wise and savvy RCMP official, isn't fooled. He smells conspiracy when his lesser cohorts think the crime has been solved with the killing of two men caught at the border. He enlists the aid of some higher ups, which causes a bit of consternation in the ranks:
"It was Jane, Chief Inspector Ward's secretary, who notified Coswell, 'What have you done now?' She whispered into the phone. The Chief Inspector is livid. He's ranting about being kept in the dark and getting ready to have your head on a platter. You'd better get your story straight fast because you're to meet with him and the Mayor in the Mayor's office in thirty minutes. Good luck. It's been nice knowing you.' She hung up before he could ask if Gillings would be there."
Plot, characterization, and action are major components of this well-written mystery, but Roy Innes manages to infuse his book with something else that is hard to define. Perhaps it's the intelligence of a senior officer's point-of-view and experience that lend the story a high degree of credibility. Innes adds a little luxury to the surroundings. He obviously likes a good glass of wine, and his Inspector Coswell likes to play a sort of mental hooky with a great meal in a fine restaurant. But that's about all he allows himself, before he charges back into action, confounding his underlings. A great read indeed!
June 2008
from thespec.com / Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/Entertainment/article/386360
Book Review
By Don Graves
Special to the Hamilton Spectator
thespec.com
West End Murders
May 2005
from the Newsletter of the Office of the Ombudsman,
the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner,
and the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Book Review
By Joanna Vander Vlugt (OPCC)
Murder in the Monashees
By Roy Innes
How do you leave a decapitated body in a forest without leaving behind a trail
of blood or any footprints in the snow? You will have to read Roy Innes’s
Murder in the Monashees to find this out and believe me, it’s intriguing.
Roy Innes is a retired Vancouver doctor who is now living on Gabriola Island. He spends his time writing mystery novels, and he is one of the featured mystery authors reading at the Chronicles of Crime bookstore-reading event also noted in this issue. In the beginning Murder in the Monashees has a little grisly detail with respect to the carrying out of the crime, but Roy writes of the crime with an Alfred Hitchcock panache, and he does not cheapen his prose with the typical slash and gore tricks of a cheap Hollywood movie. He draws his reader into the investigation which is what a good mystery is all about.
Murder in the Monashees takes place in the reader’s backyard and deals with issues that British Columbians read in their papers and watch on their television sets. I found the location, Bear Creek, a welcome change from all the stories that are set on the mean streets of New York or Chicago. I want to read the stories taking place in my backyard, with characters and settings I can identify with.
Roy’s work as a doctor comes across nicely in this novel. His short powerful lines about taking final breaths have the reader flipping the pages wanting more. I found myself cheering for many of the characters: from Corporal Blakemore, a hardnosed RCMP officer determined to bring the murderer to justice; to the young Dr. Zachary Bensen; to newly recruited RCMP Constable Ernie Downs; and Inspector Coswell, who suffers from motion sickness. And I can’t forget the aspiring writer Heather McTavish. All of these characters have faults and weaknesses, making them human, down-to-earth, Canadian!
I look forward
to reading more novels from Roy Innes. I hope he capitalizes on his medical
background and provides his readers with a medical thriller somewhere down
the road. But for now, I look forward to the next instalment of murder and
mayhem with Corporal Blakemore and the rest of the inhabitants of Bear Creek.
Murder, He Said
Barry Hammond
Pacific Rim Review of Books
Roy Innes, Murder In The Monashees, NeWest Press.
Alberta's NeWest Press has come up with the goods in this new mystery by British Columbia author and former M.D., Roy Innes. It starts out with a fine crime puzzle: a hunter near Bear Creek, B.C., finds a body roped to a tree, the head separated from the torso and tied above it with a cryptic note attached. The trick is that the hunter's own tracks in the snow are the only ones leading up to the area where the body is found. There hasn't been a recent snowfall and the daytime temperature would seem to rule out the fact that the body's frozen solid. The hunter is an unlikely suspect and the depth compression studies of his tracks negate the idea of his having carried the body in. The use of a helicopter is also dismissed. The area is full of pine trees and the downdraft created by the propellers would have left the area littered with pine needles, something the RCMP is familiar with from other landing sites. So how did a body that seems to have been killed elsewhere get tied up there?
Innes also fills his tale with a great cast of characters. The town's two RCMP officers are an interesting contrast. Paul Blakemore is an outdoorsy guy who loves small town life and gets along easily with the locals unlike his wife who prefers an urban setting. He's ambitious and intelligent but has a tendency to let his enthusiasm carry him away. Ernie Downs, his partner, is better at paperwork, computers, reports, and is a loner. He's also gay, which has caused him problems at other postings. For these two, however, the partnership clicks and together they're a strong team. There's also a crusading female reporter who used to be a political activist in Vancouver. She's attractive but gets on Blakemore's nerves. Add to this mix a handsome young male doctor, a forensics expert, whose studies have left him no time to socialize. He's attracted to the reporter and vice versa. My favorite character though is Inspector Mark Coswell. He's sent out from Vancouver to help out with the investigation. Coswell suffers from motion sickness and can't take an airplane, helicopter, or even a car ride (when he's not driving) without spending the trip with his face in the barf bag. As a result, he always wears old, comfortable, loose clothes when travelling and arrives everywhere looking like a pale, sweating, slob. Despite that, he's a food and wine gourmet. With such an interesting cast, Innes has cleverly left room so that all the tensions and attractions between this group could easily play out over a series of books, rather than just this one engaging novel.
He's good at all the details of the police procedural and the book unfolds in a convincing and realistic manner. Innes also populates the novel with a host of fascinating minor characters, many of whom function as both red herrings and colorful background detail. The pace is hectic as the small investigative team has too many leads to cover without stretching themselves thin. Even with the import of a crime scene from Vancouver and extra help from Nelson, their resources are stretched to the breaking point as two other suspicious deaths follow on the heels of the first. When the first victim is identified as a German environmentalist, the small town case takes on international political overtones.
Murder In The Monashees is a terrific first novel and a first rate mystery. Even the ending is as unconventional as it is riveting. The reader will want to see much more from Roy Innes.
Murder in the Monashees
Roy Innes
NeWest Press
201-8540 109 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, CAN T6G 1E6
ISBN: 1896300898, $10.95 CAN/$7.95 U.S.
(From the midwest book review, October 2005)
Roy Innes is a native of British Columbia, where he grew up and attended the
University of British Columbia. He worked in Vancouver as a medical doctor
and retired in Gabriola Island, where he "reads and writes to his heart's content." He
also enjoys hunting and hiking.
RCMP Corporal Paul Blakemore spends most of his time catching speeders at the
sharp right-hand bend in the Crowsnest Highway. He loves hunting, fishing,
and the laid back life of a rural setting. His partner is Constable Ernie Downs,
who is a gentle but capable gay police man. Their world shatters as the report
of a dead corpse, as yet unidentified, comes blaring over their police radio.
The corpse turns out to be a prickly environmental protester who came from
a moneyed background. Dr. Zachary Benson performs the autopsy and when he lays
eyes on Heather McTavish, star reporter for the Bear Greek Bulletin, sparks
fly. The superiors in Vancouver decide to bring in Inspector Mark Coswell to
oversee the case, and in the meantime Ethel Roberts, who is Heather's best
friend, is found murdered and her home is torched. A third murder intensifies
the manhunt, and Heather becomes the probable next victim on the murderer's
list even as the motive becomes clearer:
"'It was really a tragedy,' he recounted. 'The boy was just trying to earn some
money between university semesters. He was working with a crew that was clearing
trails in what is now the Carmanha Provincial park. He was bucking a big windfall
fir when his chainsaw hit a spike in the tree causing a tooth to break off
the chain. Somehow the fragment flew under his face shield and lacerated his
right carotid artery. He bled to death.'"
Written in a straightforward manner, Roy Innes obeys all the rules in turning
out the perfect mystery. The murderer is there in the background; pertinent
clues abound; and the police have their problems tracking their man. He includes
a captivating love story, his characters are ordinary people just trying to
get by, and the killer has a human face. There is no shortage of action, and
the book reads easily and has a refreshing twist. Innes is a mystery talent
who should keep cranking out his product. An excellent read!