THE LAST HAND

Is it past time for Charlie Salter, the former head and sole member of the Toronto police Special Affairs Unit (Death By Degrees, 1993, etc.), to retire? He’s been shunted off to desk work—no homicides, no political scandals, thank you very much—where his superior, Deputy Chief Mackenzie, is waiting for him to realize 60 is pipe-and-slippers time. But that’s before politician Flora Lucas insists the murder of her brother Jeremy, that morally upright attorney, be put on the front burner. Because the homicide squad is floundering, the case goes to Charlie, whose task is to find the tootsie who was wearing silver boots, a big-haired wig, and not much else when she was seen entering Lucas’s flat on the night of his death. Did she kill Lucas? Would the ever-so-circumspect bachelor lawyer really have dallied with this tawdriest of doxies? With the help of a transplanted Glaswegian copper called Smitty, Charlie discovers that although the attorney had three grand passions—high-stakes poker, canoeing, and classical music—it was his niggling suspicions about a fellow-lawyer’s association with a stock-scam artist that led to his death.

Whether he’s dealing with his sons’ love lives, competition among precincts, evasive suspects, or the aging process, Charlie is a great character. Let’s hope that Wright submits regular reports on how he fares in retirement.