Book Review: The Tao of Laurenson

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

The Tao of Laurenson     Amazon US TPB Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada TPB
R. F. Darion
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Dan Laurenson # 3
Signature Editions, $16.95 trade paperback, 223 pages

Reports of an elderly man wandering the streets of quiet St. Michael, Alberta, pique RCMP Staff Sergeant Dan Laurenson’s curiosity. When he finally encounters Michaelanglo Smith for himself, Laurenson finds the man neither as elderly nor as disturbed as other witnesses have reported. Smith has taken to walking the streets of St. Michael after a neighbour tipped him to the possible reappearance of his daughter, who disappeared 5 years earlier. Hearing about the way the police treated Smith then, Laurenson isn’t entirely surprised when the old man refuses his help. But after a couple of strange attacks on Smith, Laurenson finds himself looking for both the girl and a possible murderer. Meanwhile, Laurenson’s relationship with Christie Devenish takes a turn onto a rocky road, when Christie’s teenaged son runs away and Social Services gets involved on the strength of an anonymous tip

The Tao of Laurenson is partly about parents and children, and partly about the crimes people can convince themselves to commit when they feel that the world has given them short shrift. Darion (pen name of Edmonton writer Cherylyn Stacey) blends both together into a mystery that combines the best aspects of the police procedural and the cosy. Normally, I wouldn’t label a book with a police officer as its central character a “cosy,” but The Tao of Laurenson doesn’t fall easily into the category of procedural, either.

Perhaps that’s because of the book’s depiction of small-town life. St. Michael seems typical of many Canadian towns, where the RCMP are the only police force and the worst crimes usually involve loud parties and/or bored teenagers. All in all, The Tao of Laurenson is a solid, charming mystery.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM