Thursday, 25 July 2019

The K Handshape - Maureen Jennings - Christine Morris Book 2

The K Handshape
Christine Morris Book 2
Maureen Jennings
A Castle Street Mystery
Dundurn
ISBN 9781550027631
eISBN 9781554886494
ASIN B004322H02


I have been averaging a Maureen Jennings book each week over the last 10 weeks. This was the most recent one I had finished. I have been bouncing around between here 4 series. Loved this story and the other in the Christine Morris mystery that I read. And I sincerely hope we will get more Christine Morrie mysteries to read at some point in the future. This novel was shortlisted for the Author Ellis Award for best novel in 2009. And as of the writing of this review it has been 11 years since a book has been published in this series. But considering how many years passed between the Detective Murdoch books 7 and 8 we can hope! 

This volume continues sometime after the first book in the series. And it is a story filled with tension and stress right from the first pages. The story begins with Christie Morris and a colleague Dr. Leo Forgach fishing his own dead daughter from the water near the peer in small town Orillia, Ontario. And the tension and conflict that begins there ratchets up and through out the whole story. Christine and Leo both work for the behavioral science unit. They become part of the investigation. And Christine must walk a fine line between her team, the police investigating, and finding a way to both handle and support Leo through this ordeal.

In this story we have a murdered young woman. An elderly lady assaulted. We have the son of s shrink who has major mother issues. Christine is dealing with a boyfriend across the ocean, and a best friend in hospital with both heart and cancer concerns. And we have a young deaf girl who just wants to know where her mother is. The story has a strong element of deaf culture, and interactions between, deaf, partially deaf and the hearing abled. The story races from start to finish. And is a very hard book to put down. Unlike other books by Jennings that I have raced through in a day or two, reading this one was spread out over several days, and I found myself continuously thinking about the story and wondering where it would go next.

If I am honest, I can state I figured it out fairly early. But at first it was just a guess, and then the clues slowly started piling up. But it was still an excellent read. Especially returning to Christine’s relationship with her mother, and the years of issues there that still need to be worked through. 

I rated this book 5/5 stars and sis the same for the other book in this series. Of the 10 books I have read by Jennings, it is my favorite that is not a Murdoch story. It is very well written, and ties together many story lines and elements into a fascinating mystery, with some excellent side twists and plot lines to keep it intensely interesting. An excellent mystery novel, if you have not read the Christine Morris series or any of Jennings works, this is an excellent read that I highly recommend! 

Books by Maureen Jennings:
Detective Murdoch Series:

0.5 Shipwreck
1.0 Except the Dying
2.0 Under the Dragon's Tail
3.0 Poor Tom Is Cold
4.0 Let Loose the Dogs
5.0 Night's Child
6.0 Vices of My Blood
7.0 A Journeyman to Grief
8.0 Let Darkness Bury the Dead
...

Detective Inspector Tom Tyler Series:
1.0 Season of Darkness
2.0 Beware This Boy
3.0 No Known Grave
4.0 Dead Ground in Between
...

Christine Morris Series:
1.0 Does Your Mother Know?
2.0 The K Handshape
...

Paradise Café Series:

1.0 Heat Wave
2.0 November Rain
...

Other books:
The Map of Your Mind: Journeys into Creative Expression
Investigating Murdoch Mysteries: The Official Companion to the Series – with Michelle Ricci and Mir Bahmanyar
...



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