All Lit Up

“Bidulka doesn’t disappoint…”

When the Saints Go Marching In reviewed by Jacques Filippi for All Lit Up 2014 Gift Guide – December 2014

by Anthony Bidulka (Insomniac Press)

After eight books (and many awards) in the Russell Quant mystery series, Anthony Bidulka turns his focus on a new lead protagonist, agent Adam Saint. In the first novel of this new series, Bidulka doesn’t disappoint his readers who enjoyed following Quant in plots that took him to many different countries. Adam Saint, working with the CDRA (the Canadian Disaster Recovery Agency), doesn’t always go to locations as exotic as those Quant used to visit, but he does accumulate many Air Miles points. First, Saint is sent to Russia to investigate the suspicious death of his boss and good friend Geoffrey Kazinski; Saint then briefly comes back to Canada to deal with two other major crises in his personal life, before flying to the US, London (England), Southeast Asia, etc.

Adam Saint is a likeable character right from the start; although you quickly realise that he must be a skilled and dedicated agent, you also know that he’s a good person with flaws. Even though he’s working on a case with international repercussions, Saint can’t hide from his personal troubles and worries.

While Bidulka has created a strong protagonist that could carry a novel on his shoulders, he also had the intelligence to provide him with a very solid cast of characters –friends, coworkers, allies and enemies, and others who all add to the big picture.

You can also look for the second title in the Adam Saint series, published earlier this year: The Women of Skawa Island.

see more at https://alllitup.ca/Blog/2014/Gift-Guide-Week-Mysteries-and-Crime-Fiction