Experimental feature: Order Stain of the Berry: A Russell Quant Mystery (Russell Quant Mysteries) from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.

               

Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781897178249
ISBN: 1897178247
Label: Insomniac Press
Manufacturer: Insomniac Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 358
Publication Date: 2007-04-01
Publisher: Insomniac Press
Studio: Insomniac Press

Everyone has their boogeyman. But who-or what-is scaring Saskatoon locals to death? Private Detective Russell Quant is roused from sleep only to fall into a nightmare case when the family of a suicide victim hires him to uncover the real cause of death. But what is real and what is imaginary? Quant works to narrow his list of suspects only to find the number of victims growing. He is mystified as the trail of fear connects him to a vast landscape of people, including an elegant potash miner, dubious trailer park denizens, reticent farm folk, the Pink Gopher choir, and a gaseous psychiatrist.

Compounding Quant's bewilderment is the complete and perfect disappearance of his once very real friend, Sereena, who has become a ghost he simply can't find. With the boogeyman always a few paces ahead, Quant struggles to keep the hounds of failure from baying. Traveling from Saskatchewan's summer storms to the menacing Lotus Land of Vancouver, he finally touches down in the Canadian Arctic, where tragic hope resides. He returns home to bully attacks, a desperate chase through midnight woods, and a sadistic abduction. As Quant penetrates the truth of the boogeyman, he finds himself on a perilous suspension bridge between idyllic childhood and grown-up violence.

Anthony Bidulka is an avid traveler, party-giver, and sun-worshipper. One of his favorite sayings is: "Life may be short, but it can be wide." He lives in Saskatoon and invites you to visit his website at www.anthonybidulka.com. This is the fourth book in his Russell Quant mystery series.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: a new and challenging Russell Quant mystery
Review: I just finished this fourth book I've read in the series. They have all been different and this one was another step in the author's growth as a writer. I was enthralled. and sometimes disturbed. But I can't wait for his next one to be published, (in October) even though he has said on his website that the next book he is working on will not be a Russell Quant mystery. I hope that doesn't mean the end of the series. I know Russell and want to continue getting to know him in future books. Whatever, I will read any of Anthony's books.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Lovely Story
Review: Stain of the Berry is an excellent mystery that is really about the mystery of Russell Quant - his life, loves, career. And, it is wholly enchanting. From the beginnings that lead us into a case that involve the Boogeyman, the Pink Gopher Choir, a tragedy in Delhi, an Artic hideaway, a Grace Jones lookalike and a Shakespearean actor...yes, all in one book...one can barely imagine all these parts making a wonderful whole. But that they most certainly do. In spadess. Highly recommended.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Fresh, New, Entertaining
Review: Stain of the Berry is not your typical mystery. Many readers might say that the most unique thing about it is that the protagonist is a gay man. In my view, this is the least unique attribute amongst many unique attributes of this Anthony Bidulka book.

Stain of the Berry finds Russell Quant trying to make ends meet as he pursues a career as a private eye in the sultry heat of a Saskatchewan summer. Where? Los Angeles? Nah. New York? Nope. London. No way. Boston? Not even close. Not even Toronto or Vancouver. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Believe it. And believe you'll want to read more about Bidulka and Quant's hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewanand the people who live there.

Quant's case at first seems pretty pedestrian. Girl kills herself. Girl's family doesn't buy it. Quant investigates. But what he quickly uncovers is a smorgasbord of quirky characters, the Pink Gopher Choir, and everyone's nemesis: The BOOgeyman. And it's how Quant pursues his clues that I loved. He's no Jason Bourne, closer to a prairie Magnum PI. Always room for a bit of dancing and sex and good food and time with family and friends and his dogs. He's a real, full person.

Intertwined with the above tale, Bidulka deftly inserts another story line that by the time I realized was only minimally tied to his ongoing case, I was so drawn in I wanted a separate book just for those characters and storylines. Maybe that's coming?

After reading Stain of the Berry, I was surprised - and thrilled - to find three other Quant books on the market. For this fly girl, with lots of hotel hours to read in, it was a real gift to have something fresh, new and entertaining to sink my teeth into. I give this a 5/5 for sure.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Wonderful Adventure
Review: In Stain of the Berry, Anthony Bidulka's fourth Russell Quant mystery, yet again, our favorite gay detective is on a rollicking adventure taking him from his Canadian hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Vancouver, British Columbia to the Arctic Circle of all places and even a city called Moose Jaw. Only with a Bidulka novel does the reader really get taken to places you've likely never been before (but just might like to visit!)

Russell Quant is called in by the parents of a young woman who is found dead at the bottom of her apartment building. She jumped. But, unlike the police, they don't believe it's suicide. Russell digs into the woman's past finding the oddest of characters, involving the aforementioned most curious of locales, and unveiling one of the most devious and dark bad guys so far in the series (and there have been some baddies). Along the way, Russell takes a high action/high emotion/high suspense side trip to put to rest a personal matter that has been an engaging ongoing mystery throughout most of this unique series.

To read an Anthony Bidulka novel is to be surprised and entertained and titillated and even a bit scared. Bring it on!

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: After waiting so long, it's a real disappointment
Review: Let me start by saying that I am a great fan of Mr. Bidulka's previous books. He presented the reader with really interesting main characters and sub characters too. The setting was one I'm not familiar with, so it was nice to get to know the "great prairies of Canada". Plus his plotting was careful and spare. Nicely done.

All of this tells you that I was eagerly looking forward to a new mystery and was equally disappointed after I finished reading it. The book starts with an interesting plot and "mystery". Very readable and believable. But midway thru the book Mr. Bidulka makes a 180 degree turn and begins a new plot only very slightly tied to the main story he had already established that is neither readable or believable. In fact, it is so fantastical that it destroys the last half of the book. I hope that with his next book, Mr. Bidulka can get back on track and again give us, the readers what he so successfully did in his first three books.

---

---