REVIEW

THE CALLING - Inger Ash Wolfe

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

THE CALLING is one of those books.  One of those books that I found sometimes utterly compelling; was bored witless in some passages; laughed out loud in others; found myself heartily confused about some of the procedural elements; and was slightly repelled by some parts.

It is a serial killer book, and I will admit that I'm getting to the point where I'm over the whole serial killer thing.  I'm particularly over the barking mad, out there motive serial killer thing.  And there's certainly a barking mad impetus behind the killer in THE CALLING.  Luckily, the plot is a little intriguing and how on earth he's managed to select and convince his victims to co-operate (up to a point) did mitigate the predictable elements somewhat.

DI Hazel Micallef is a great character - fiesty, compassionate, very realistic.  The fallout from her divorce wasn't over-blown and she's certainly somebody that you can "get a handle on", empathise with.  At points she was flat out funny.  The relationship with her mother is hugely enjoyable.

There is a great sense of small town Canada throughout the book - albeit not the main point of the plots or the book as a whole, but there were nice little glimpses into life in Port Dundas, and the relationship between the small towns and the larger metropolitan areas.

The violence implicit in the killings was well handled - most of the very worst off camera, enough of the icky to the forefront to enhance our killer's extremely creepy persona.  (Mind you, once in a while a serial killer that wasn't just weird would probably be a lot more chilling.)

The oddity that kept wrong-footing me at points though was a procedural element (and it's probably my fault) but I couldn't quite believe that a multi-location serial killer, ranging across the entire of a country like Canada would remain a small-town extremely local investigation with Hazel directing activities in far-flung locations.  It might well happen that way - THE CALLING didn't quite convince me of the authenticity of this approach.

But as serial killer books goes, THE CALLING was okay - it's not the best crime book I've read in a long while, but it's certainly not the worst, and I'd recommend anyone looking for a strong female character, who can handle a bit of creepy and a bit of gore to try it out.

POSTSCRIPT:  Inger Ash Wolfe is flagged as a pseudonym for a prominent North American literary novelist.  I don't know why people play these games, but knowing / not knowing who the author is doesn't affect how the book reads, and besides, I didn't think the book was so bad that the author needs to hide their identity.

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
ISBN
9780771088964
Year of Publication
Book Number (in series)
1
BLURB

There were thirteen crime-scene pictures. Dead faces set in grimaces and shouts. Faces howling, whistling, moaning, crying, hissing. Hazel pinned them to the wall and stood back. It was a silent opera of ghosts. 

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, sixty-one-year-old Hazel has only the constructive criticism of her old goat of a mother and her own sharp tongue to buoy her. But when a terminally ill Port Dundas woman is gruesomely murdered in her own home, Hazel and her understaffed department must spring to life. And as one terminally ill victim after another is found—their bodies drained of blood, their mouths sculpted into strange shapes—Hazel finds herself tracking a truly terrifying serial killer across the country while everything she was barely holding together begins to spin out of control.

Through the cacophony of her bickering staff, her unsupportive superiors, a clamoring press, the town’s rumor mill, and her own nagging doubts, Hazel can sense the dead trying to call out. But what secret do they have to share? And will she hear it before it’s too late?

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