MasqueradePolice Procedural |
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Masquerade A RCMP Police Procedural Novel set in Winnipeg, Manitoba This novel is so good, it has been picked up by a traditional print publisher and is short-listed for the Margaret Laurence Book Award! |
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Masquerade: noun -- a guise, a front, a pretext, a cover up.
Prostitution, biker gangs and a corrupt forensic lab are at the heart of criminal activity in Stan Bolenko's old home town. When he returns to the city as an undercover RCMP officer, he has no idea the trail will lead to his childhood sweetheart, Anel Blondeau. Stan's unwitting lead into the shadowy world of the criminal kingpin is beautiful Sonja Slepsik, a woman desperate to escape her dark secrets.
Reader Comment:
"When do we get the sequel?!"
S. Joan Popek, Reviewer for Midwest Book Reviews
http://www.sjoanpopek.com
"... Masquerade is a lean, well written, "get to the story" tale with no excess fat/filler prose that adds only words and little plot advancement like so many of today's novels seem to have. These masterful authors don't need such diversionary devices to tell their tale. They are true story tellers. In this book, you will find intrigue and mystery that draw you in from the first paragraph and doesn't let you go until you turn the last page.
Do you like a good undercover cop story with international intrigue? Well, Masquerade has that and more. The story begins with this paragraph, "Sealed in the cramped smuggler's hole...Sonja Sepsik crouched on a folded blanket. Cold fingers of fear squeezed the air from her lungs and fed her growing claustrophobia..." I was instantly hooked. I had to know more about Sonja and how she got herself into such a predicament...
I highly recommend this book. Buy it, immerse yourself in this entertaining story. You will be glad you did."
MASQUERADE
ISBN 1-59201-027-X
Reviewed by Karen Treanor for: The New Mystery Reader
"Masquerade" is the first electronic format book I've read. I approached it with some trepidation, because the only books I've ever read 'on-screen' are my own compositions, and that's different to reading someone else's book for entertainment.
It only took a few pages for me to forget that I was reading on-screen, because the story drew me in so quickly that I was in danger of getting a finger cramp from clicking the 'page down' button so fast.
I was on the edge of my swivel-chair as Sonja crouched in the back of the freezing truck, hearing the guards just outside, smelling the bitter smoke of cheap eastern European cigarettes, and praying she'd survive to join her brother in Hungary. Sonja was trying to escape a rotten life in the Ukraine. Unfortunately, she escaped into something worse, and was soon on her way to Winnipeg, of all places.
The main story starts when Sonja arrives in Winnipeg to work as a servant while her English improves enough for her to be marketable as a prostitute. She clings to the slight hope that once there, she can find her uncle, whom family legend says emigrated to Canada.
At the same time, Stan Boyko returns home to Winnipeg after a decade away. Stan's with the Mounties (RCMP to purists) and has been working undercover. He's been so far undercover that he hasn't much of a life of his own, and things don't look like improving with the new assignment, which is to infiltrate organised crime in Manitoba.
You can see it coming: Winnipeg is a relatively small town, and a Ukrainian girl on the loose with three words of English is just bound to bump into one of the few Mounties who can speak Ukrainian. Bump they do, and it doesn't take our hero long to sniff out something worse than a little petty prostitution racket.
There's a crooked businessman, a corrupt scientist, biker gangs, murder, a nasty bit of framing-for-murder, and, oh yes, trafficking in human organs. Along the way there's some well-detailed police procedural stuff for those of us who enjoy that--plus a look into the seamy side of Winnipeg street-life that leaves you itching from imaginary fleas and dirt.
This is an excellent mystery thriller, and the price ($4.50) for a download in your preferred format or a CD at $10 can't be beaten. If you have one of those new electronic readers the simulates a 'real' book, so much the better, but you can enjoy this just as much on your own computer screen. Adjust the width of the margins so the page is comfortable for you, and get reading: you won't regret it.
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