The Dave Bliss Quintet: An Inspector Bliss Mystery

David Bliss #5

by James Hawkins

In this, his fifth escapade, Inspector David Bliss goes undercover once again, and heads to St. Juan sur Mer on the Côte d'Azur. His mission is so secret that even Bliss doesn't know why he is there: he only knows that he is tracking down a man the force wants in custody for an unstated reason.

But the winds of the Mediterranean provide clues that take Bliss off course and lead him to unravel two of the world's best known unsolved mysteries: the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask and the location of the stolen Nazi gold.

Genres: Mystery

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

James Hawkins was a police commander in the U.K. for twenty years and a Canadian private investigator for a further eight years. From 1992 to 1997, he was director of education at the Canadian Institute for Environmental Investigations. His debut mystery novel, Missing: Presumed Dead (2001), introduced his popular detective, David Bliss.

Reviews

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Whimsical" is the first word that comes to mind. The title, of course, is a sideways reference to Dave Brubeck, and Hawkins uses the notion of a quintet as an organizing principle, but in a way that didn't really resonate with me. However, I enjoyed the lightness and unpredictability of the plot. The present-tense narration stopped bothering me after a few chapters. There's nothing particularly Canadian about this Canadian mystery published by a Canadian press, and that's fine too. I would read another by this author.