The Night Bell by Inger Ash Wolfe

First Line: Hibiki Yoshida drank green tea from a blue ceramic cup.

The murdered bones of children are being found on land that was once a county foster home-- land that is now a new subdivision increasingly filled with dissatisfied homeowners. When three of these homeowners are killed after the bones are found, a panic begins.

Hazel Micallef is working hard on both cases, but when her memory is jogged about the disappearance of a girl she knew back in 1959-- a disappearance that was blamed on her adopted brother-- Hazel sees this as an opportunity to clear her brother's name. This detective just doesn't know when to quit, and she's going to throw herself right in the path of an angry killer.

It's taken eight years for the pseudonymous Inger Ash Wolfe to write four Hazel Micallef books, and if this is what it takes to maintain the high quality of the series, I'm certainly not going to complain and beg the author to write faster. Fans have experienced quite a bit through these four books: superiors wanting Hazel off the force, the sixtysomething Hazel's back surgery and recuperation, Hazel's care of her mother Emily as Emily's mental and physical health continue to deteriorate, as well as a passel of hair-raising cases that would make many police officers retire. Hazel Micallef is one of the best characters in crime fiction; she ranks right up there on my list with Fiona Griffiths and Dr. Ruth Galloway. I'd no more forget to read the newest Inger Ash Wolfe mystery than I would wake up in the morning and forget to put on my glasses.

There are two crimes being investigated in The Night Bell. The present-day one is solved rather quickly and behind the scenes because it is the old case, the case that Hazel wants to solve for her brother, that is the main focus of attention. It is interesting to inhabit Hazel's childhood memories, to see what sort of little girl she was. Those memories prove to be very important in solving the case, too. Her main source of help is James Wingate who was gravely injured in the last book, A Door in the River. Wingate is supposed to be on light duty, and he certainly isn't officially on the roster, but his work is key in helping Hazel solve the cold case-- and it has a lot to do with the fact that Hazel is the only one on the force who believes in him. 

I may have spotted the killer in the cold case early on, but that didn't matter much. When the title of this book was explained, my blood ran cold, and all I could think about was justice. Don't be surprised if you feel the very same way.

Are you new to the Hazel Micallef books? Technically you can start just about anywhere because the author does a good job of filling in enough of the backstory to keep things clear. But if you truly love unique characters and delight in watching their progress over a period of time, please start at the very beginning with The Calling. You'll be in for a treat!
  

The Night Bell by Inger Ash Wolfe

eISBN: 9781681771656

Pegasus Books © 2016

eBook, 400 pages

Police Procedural, #4 Hazel Micallef mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley 


 

A Door in the River by Inger Ash Wolfe

First Line: Saturday, August 6, 11:21 p.m. She needed to get to the road.

Inspector Hazel Micallef is the type of character I love, and my love affair with her began with the first book, The Calling. In that book, she is the 62-year-old interim police chief of a small town force in the province of Ontario, Canada. She's divorced, not particularly likeable, and is racked with pain. She lives with her octogenarian larger-than-life mother who's an ex-mayor of the town in which they live. Hazel is smart, relies a lot on her intuition, and doesn't know the meaning of the word quit.

In the second book, The Taken, she finds herself forced to live in the basement of her ex-husband's house after back surgery-- and forced to rely upon not only her ex-husband, but his current wife, for almost everything she needs. For someone as independent and obstinate as Hazel, this is an almost unbearable situation-- but she learns from it. (She may be stubborn, but she's not stupid.)

In this third book, Hazel's story continues. One of the most popular and well-known men in the community has been found dead in the parking lot of a smoke shop on a nearby reservation. The autopsy shows that the man died of anaphylactic shock after being stung by a wasp. Hazel does not believe the findings. She knows the man, and after talking with others who were even closer to him, too many things just don't add up.

Then in short order, the dead man's wife is attacked, and another man is killed. Both crimes have a common denominator: a lone woman who seems to be desperately searching for something. Who is she? What is she looking for? Is she also responsible for the first man's death? Is Hazel going to be able to solve these crimes before someone else dies?

It's a good thing that Hazel is a strong woman because there's a lot more on her plate than a few violent crimes. She's just been informed that there are changes afoot in the police department, one of them being that she has a new boss-- a man whom she used to supervise just a short while ago. But even more worrying than the crimes and the new boss is the fact that Hazel's 88-year-old mother, who's always been so vibrant and full of vinegar, seems to be giving up. As a daughter who loves her mother dearly, this is the hardest thing for her to face. Give Hazel a bad guy any day over seeing her mother lying in bed with her face to the wall.

One of the things I love most about this series is the author's skill in changing my perspective. At the beginning, the killer is a person to be feared and reviled, but as the story unfolds, we find we need to change our point of view. This is about much more than a woman on the rampage, and as Hazel puts the clues together, she understands this and knows that she will not rest until everyone responsible is brought to justice.

Larysa is one of the best "villains" I've read in years. As more and more is learned about this woman, my perspective continually shifted from fear and abhorrence to understanding to great unease. She is a character to remember.

As is Hazel. In her many years of policing, she's excellent at her job, although her people skills are sadly lacking. If she cares about someone and that person is in danger, she will literally move heaven and earth to save them, regardless of the cost to herself.

I've just learned that there are three more books planned in this series, and I couldn't be happier. With superbly plotted stories and a strong-willed quirky main character, this is one series that I want to hang onto for dear life. Is this one of the formulas for books that you love? Then I highly recommend that you get your hands on all three of these books. Is it necessary to read them all in order for them to make sense? Not all all. But when a character like Hazel is involved, you don't want to miss a word of her story!

A Door in the River by Inger Ash Wolfe

ISBN: 9781605984209

Pegasus Books © 2012

Hardcover, 288 pages

Genre: Police Procedural, #3 Inspector Hazel Micallef mystery

Rating: A+

Source: NetGalley

The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe

Title: The Taken
Author: Inger Ash Wolfe
ISBN: 9780151013531
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010
Hardcover, 432 pages
Genre: Police Procedural, #2 Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: Glynnis Pedersen's house was full of clocks.

Sixty-something Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef is not having the best of years. She's had major back surgery, and there was no alternative but she move into her ex-husband's basement and have his new wife take care of her. Just as she's beginning to think about getting back to work in order to salvage some of her sanity, her mother flushes her stash of painkillers down the toilet. It's almost a blessing when Hazel's informed that the body of a woman has been found in a local lake. What makes the discovery strange is that the local paper has just published the first installment of a story in which the details are eerily similar. In no time at all, Hazel finds herself caught up in a game concocted by someone who knows how to convince her to re-open a cold case... someone who knows that, once she gets started, Hazel will not stop until she has the answers.

I was thrilled with the first book in this series, The Calling. I enjoyed the setting and the swiftly moving plot, but most of all, I loved the character of Hazel. Her dedication, her ability to think outside the box, her compassion, her prickliness, and her sense of humor. I was hoping that I'd enjoy this next book in the series just as much, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

The game Hazel finds herself in the midst of is deviously plotted, and although the identity of the criminal is revealed about halfway through the book, this has the effect of heightening the tension, not lessening it. To top it all off, I found that I liked Hazel even more in this second book because Wolfe takes the time to add more facets to her character. I know that Hazel is getting close to retirement age, but I certainly do hope that she'll be appearing in a few more books before she hangs up her badge.

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The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe

Title: The Calling
Author: Inger Ash Wolfe
ISBN: 9780151013470, Harcourt Books, 2008
Genre: Police Procedural, #1 Hazel Micallef mystery
Rating: A+

First Line: He was precisely on time.

Inger Ash Wolfe is the nom de plume of a "North American writer", and there has been much speculation as to the writer's true identity. I have my own suspicions, but at the end of the day, I don't really care whom the person is. All that's important is that this writer knows how to spin a wonderful tale.

61-year-old Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived her entire life in the small town of Port Dundas, Ontario, Canada. Hobbling toward retirement with a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, she's still reeling from a divorce after nearly forty years of marriage. The only thing she has to sustain her is her critical octogenarian mother (the former mayor of Port Dundas) and her own acerbic tongue. When a terminally ill woman is found murdered in her own home and other similar murders follow, Hazel and her understaffed department find themselves on the trail of a serial killer.

Hazel takes this series of murders on her own patch very seriously:

It was strange to have spent all of one's life in or close to a single place. But every time Detective Inspector Micallef drove this strip, her heart sang. This was where she belonged; there was no other place for her.... This was her world. Every doorway framed a story for her-- some good, some not so good-- and the faces that peered out of those doors, or walked the sidewalks, were her intimates.

It was serendipity for me to read two examples of what author Mike Befeler terms Geezer Lit back to back, but I found Hazel to be a breath of fresh air. She's a woman in a position of authority. Some of her body parts don't work the way they should. Some mornings she'd just rather stay in bed. Her mother could wear out a daughter half Hazel's age, but Hazel keeps on trucking. The head of the Port Dundas police department retired seven years before, and Hazel was named "temporary" chief. However, these are the days of governmental penny pinching, and since Port Dundas is such a little backwater, the temporary part of her job title makes Hazel laugh almost as much as the thoughts of getting a cell phone.

Delia Chandler's death raises too many questions for Hazel-- one of the benefits of living in a small town being that one knows the behavior and habits of everyone else. During the preliminary investigation Hazel shows one of the reasons why the people in Port Dundas like her so much: she cares every bit as much about them.

"I don't want her taken away from here," said Hazel sharply. "She was a citizen of this town for every minute of her eighty-odd years, and she'll be treated that way. Not like any old victim to be stuck in a fridge."

When Hazel isn't dealing with other detectives or fighting to keep the media from knowing more than they should, she gets to go home to deal with her mother, Emily:

"What do you want with the bloody Internet, Mother?" she'd asked her. "It's nothing but filth and collectibles. And chat rooms-- what do you need with a chat room?"

"You sound like my mother," Emily Micallef said.

Wolfe's characterizations are so real that I was caring deeply about these people in no time flat... to the point where I worried about Hazel's overstepping her authority when she found a way to get the additional help they needed. Would her eagerness to do anything it takes to identify the killer and bring him to justice cause her to make mistakes that would make the entire investigation blow up in her face and let a murderer go free?

Brilliant characterizations, a finely tuned sense of place, the feel of life in a small town, and a plot that can move so quickly one's in danger of getting whiplash... all these things combined to make The Calling an incredible read. I savored this book, I fell in love with Hazel, and I've got my sights set on the next book in the series, The Taken.