Angelhunting by Ji Hong Sayo is the first book in the new Seamus Caron Mystery series. Seamus is a private detective in Toronto where he primarily works on finding wandering husbands and lost money though he occasionally consults with his best friend, Sandra Blair, who is a homicide detective with the Toronto Police department. When Seamus is hired to find a stolen briefcase without looking inside to verify the contents he becomes intrigued. At about the same time Sandra asks him to look into a murder with a missing body that took place inside a hospital he is further intrigued, especially when he realizes the victim is a rather notorious mob lawyer. With the help of Sandra and his new secretary, Maxwell Moscovitz, Seamus starts investigating both cases and ends up thinking they may be related. Especially upon realizing that the briefcase may have contained a rather pricey and exclusive new drug known as platinum that may have been sold by the same mob associates frequently defended by the dead lawyer. With a rising death rate and some rather uneasy connections Seamus finds himself surrounded by the police, the mob and an unknown killer all of which bring back some rather horrible memories.
I am going to admit that I had never heard of this series before I decided to try it out as it seems to be brand new and this is the first book by this author from what I can find. That being said, it was great. There are a lot of mystery or thriller novels about detectives of various sorts but there aren’t very many new ones about private detectives, at least not very many that are actually any good. This one definitely impressed me mostly because it had a multi-layered and highly intricate plot. There was a lot going on in this story and it all seemed to come together in some rather unusual ways over the course of it. I wasn’t overly surprised by the way it all ended up playing out as there were plenty of minor clues sprinkled in but at the same time I will say that you really had to be paying attention to catch everything. It was pretty well thought out and well executed. I did sometimes feel like there were things that were left unexplained or unresolved but I am also hoping that they will come into play in a later book in the series, hoping it will actually be continued. The main character was really well depicted and had the perfect personality to fall into the role of private detective. It also did a good job of explaining how he became a detective without actually explaining as it sprinkled the background details throughout which was great. There is a fine balance to that which was definitely well handled in this story. It also did a pretty good job of balancing but gradually increasing the overall tension and the reveal over the course of the story. I am happy giving this book four out of five stars.
This book is a pretty good example of an adult thriller or mystery novel though it falls closer to the mystery side of that and should hold some appeal for readers who enjoy that type of work. I highly doubt it will hold appeal for readers who prefer other genres though. It is aimed primarily at adults and I would mostly agree with that as it deals with some potentially problematic topics such as drug dealing and murder though it comes from the perspective of trying to stop that. It also contains decent levels of violence as well considering the themes. While it is not overly graphic I would still recommend only readers above the age of fifteen or sixteen should probably read this. If it sounds interesting consider trying it out and remember to share your thoughts in the comments if you do.