Book Review: Sleep While I Sing by L.R. Wright
An unidentified woman is found beyond a thicket, off to the side of the Sunshine Coast Highway. Her body is propped up against a tree, her hair combed, her face clean, her throat slashed. Determined to discover her identity, Sergeant Alberg asks a local high school art teacher to draw the victim’s picture for the papers. The exceptional portrait Tommy Cummings creates leads to the identification of the victim and a possible suspect.
The second in the Karl Alberg mystery series takes us back to the normally sleepy hamlet of Sechelt, Canada. I really like this series for its sense of place and its intriguing characters. Wright has a gift for description — she describes a kitten as “black with white front paws and a white splotch on her chest and another one smeared across her mouth; she looked like she had been interrupted while eating a marshmallow.” Did I mention that the kitten belongs to Sergeant Alberg? I love a man who loves animals. Unfortunately for Alberg, the librarian he’s interested in doesn’t get as swoony as I do over a man with a kitten. She does get all swoony over a B-list actor who’s in town visiting his mother, however. I found this frustrating because I had trouble understanding why her infatuation lasted more than a couple of weeks — Galbraith struck me as whiny and petulant — I don’t care how gorgeous he is, those simply aren’t sexy qualities. But then again, he was probably much more charming before he became a murder suspect.
Galbraith is not Alberg’s only suspect — there’s also the man who found the body. Wright does an excellent job sprinkling out details about both men, keeping us guessing. She also gives us a few glimpses inside the murderer’s mind which makes us wonder if there’s someone else Alberg should be checking out.
Looking forward to reading A Chill Rain in January!
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