THE GOD GAME

An aide to an up-and-coming Queen’s Park minister hires private investigator Dan Sharp (The Jade Butterfly, 2015, etc.) to find his missing husband.

Those who rise to prominence in Canada’s national government often get their start in provincial politics. So it’s no surprise that Ontario minister of educational reforms Alec Henderson, in promoting progressive curriculum reform in local schools, is paving the way for his bid on the national stage. A scandal among his staff, however, could ruin Henderson’s chances. So his top aide, Peter Hansen, demands Dan’s absolute discretion when he hires the detective to find Tony Moran, his missing husband. Not so much because Hansen and Moran are gay: Dan sees Canada as way ahead of its southern neighbor on the issue of same-sex unions. But Tony’s a gambler, and before he scarpered, he lost serious sums to some unsavory folks. That’s a connection that might not go down too well with Canadian voters. Before Dan can do much looking, he discovers another wrinkle in the already convoluted case. Local journalist Simon Bradley calls him to insist that Moran’s disappearance is linked to the apparent suicide of opposition party member John Badger Wilkens III. Bedeviled by the intricacies of planning his own upcoming wedding to policeman Nick Trposki, Dan nevertheless finds himself increasingly drawn into an intrigue whose consequences could be significant.

Fans of Canadian mystery fiction will find an urban and urbane alternative to “death by snowshoe.”