Shaded Light
With matchmaking on her mind, Ellen Brodie looks forward to a quiet weekend with her husband, her son, and her favorite cousin’s attractive daughter, Lorry Preston, who is visiting from Alberta.
But the weekend is doomed when Ellen's husband invites his two legal partners and their quarreling wives; one of the legal partners includes his wife’s wallflower sister; Ellen’s son brings his devastatingly handsome best friend; a black sheep nephew shows up; and a new neighbor descends on them because of renovations.
If that wasn’t enough, Lorry discovers a body in the Japanese garden. The law arrives in the persons of series characters Detective-Inspector Paul Manziuk and Detective Constable Jacqueline Ryan.
Series Characters
Paul Manziuk is a born cop who is tired. Maybe he’s having a mid-life crisis; maybe it’s the recent changes in the department; maybe just too many bad guys and too much work. In any case, he’s a workaholic who hates incompetence and strives always to produce, not simply an acceptable solution, but the right solution.
A high school graduate, he started at the bottom, as a lowly cop on the beat, and has worked his way up to Inspector, which is as much responsibility as he wants. He’s an honest man, hard-working and not particularly well-off. He has a long-suffering wife, Loretta, who is also of Ukrainian ancestry, two sons aged 23 and 17, and a 21-year-old daughter.
A big man, Manziuk is six foot five and two hundred thirty-five pounds, some of it bulging a bit in the stomach area. He’s 47 years old, with dark brown hair, balding on top. He has strong features, not precisely handsome, but not unhandsome. Because of his size and his thorough attention to detail, at first glance he appears slow and ponderous of body and of mind, but actually he has fluid body movement and a quick mind with a dry sense of humor.
He cares, not only about people but about stopping evil, and since a caring cop is an easy mark, he uses gruffness as a wall of protection.
Jacqueline Ryan is an eager young cop who knows she’s been promoted primarily because she is a black woman and therefore a double minority. However, she doesn’t hesitate to grasp the opportunity with both hands. She’s determined to prove not only that she deserved the promotion but also that she can be as good as any cop in the department—including Manziuk.
Ryan is 28, single, and of Jamaican ancestry. She’s had a rather unstable home life, including her father's death when she was 11, followed by her mother's remarriage and then divorce from a somewhat violent man. Ryan lives at home, along with her mom, her grandmother, her aunt Vida, and her cousin Precious, so her extended family is a strong factor in her life.
Ryan is intelligent, rather fearless, extroverted, creative, and determined. She tends to hide her fears or uncertainty under a veneer of humor. But her tongue can be sharp as a needle if her crusading spirit is touched.
Ryan has a university degree in psychology and an advanced degree in criminology, with marks at the top of her class. She’s fought hard for her education and her position, and she finds it very difficult to relax her defenses. Her life revolves around her career. Keeping her mind sharp, her hand steady, eating healthy, exercising regularly—everything is focused on her success as a policewoman.
She sees men as rivals and has little interest in dating. Just another distraction. As for a home and family—maybe—in ten years or so, but only if she changes a lot.
Reviews
"Ontario police detectives Paul Manziuk and his new partner, Jacqueline Ryan, make an odd team—he's white, an abrupt, patronizing veteran, while she's a recently promoted, vivacious black woman—but in Lindquist's debut mystery the two rub elbows and tempers to captivating effect…Like Agatha Christie, Lindquist spends a lot of time developing a believable web of personal relationships before introducing the murders. However, she updates the Golden Age template with modern police techniques (Ryan has degrees in both psychology and criminology). The result is a cozy that will delight fans who appreciate solid, modern detection." Publishers Weekly
"Detailed characterization, surprising relationships, and nefarious plot twists provide ample diversion; this first mystery is recommended for most collections." Library Journal
“While this is not a "religious" mystery, it has a preacher's daughter as a character in what is probably the best, most realistic and honest portrayal I have read in contemporary fiction of any sort. There are snippets of sound theology (nothing preachy) as the young woman responds to the curiosity of fellow guests at a house party. (This is an excellent read, in any case, very much in the classic mystery structure, and it suckered me right up to the end.)” Carol Ann Nelson (on Dorothy L)
"This is a fast paced book that was really hard to put down. At different times I suspected each and every person who was present except for the one who actually did it! Ms. Lindquist has taken a large cast of characters and made them all into fascinating people, each of whom has something to hide and/or some reason to resent the victim. They are complex, as are their relationships and the writer has made them believable." About.com/Mysteries (Lorraine Gelly)
"A recipe for murder and mystery that simmers slowly and emits an enticing aroma reminiscent of earlier delights. It’s not a taut, edge of the seat thriller but then it wasn’t intended to be….Shaded Light is just that—a convergence of shadows. Purposely patterned after Agatha’s best, readers are led down the garden path where nothing is quite as it seems, and suspects appear at every turn. The killer, revealed at the end, might be a surprise to some. The true joy is in the investigation and the revelation of character quirks and investigative processes. With any luck, we’ll see more of Manziuk and Ryan in years to come." The Charlotte Austin Review Ltd. (P. J. Nunn)
"This book is what I would call a cozy police procedural. It's the kind I especially like: traditional closed community, lots of suspects, clues, detection, and interesting characters. There is list of the major characters in the front of the book, which is especially handy until we read enough to lock the characters in our minds… Lots of skilled interrogation provides leads, and of course the crime is finally solved. In the process we are treated to varied and carefully delineated characters that hold our attention, to good, uncliched, lucid writing, and to a well-sustained pace as we try to match wits with the detectives… A well-plotted crime novel that should appeal to all those who especially like this sub-genre." Gene Stratton, author
"A cozy reminiscent of the best Agatha Christie had to offer….You have humor, complications, and characters so real that you can just about touch them and smell their sweat. Good stuff!” Midwest Book Review
“Highly Recommended. N. J. Lindquist writes an entertaining Canadian cozy that that will please police procedural fans. The motives of the partygoers are fully developed as the audience sees first hand their animosities and desires even before the first corpse is discovered. Paul and Jillian make a fabulous team as their divergent personalities harmoniously clash to the benefit of the reader. The who-done-it is well designed with a wonderful investigation to add to the pleasure.” Under the Covers (Harriet Klausner)
"Another weekend house party has gone awry—this one in the newly acquired country estate of George and Ellen Brodie outside Toronto….N.J. Lindquist works every twist imaginable in her modern cozy-meets-police-procedural, Shaded Light…This excellently plotted novel is the first in a projected series of Manziuk and Ryan mysteries. It kept me reading and guessing until the very end." I Love a Mystery
Selected as one of the books in the Librarians Choice 2000 Fiction for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County library (along with Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, John LeCarre, Elmore Leonard, Val McDermid, Andrew Pypher, etc.).
Winner of The Word Guild 2005 Awards for Best Mystery/Suspense Novel and Best Independently Published Fiction.
