Joe Grundy
Created by Marc Strange

And then Marc Strange's Sucker Punch arrived at my door.

As an editor and reviewer my mailbox is always full of treasures, and nothing delights this errant Canadian than a package from home. I slashed open the envelope and dumped out the book, flipped it to the back cover blurb, and started to read.

JOE GRUNDY, ex-prizefighter. Check.

Currently working the Lord Douglas, some swank joint called in downtown Vancouver, as a hotel dick. Check.

Dipshit, suddenly rich kid gets a premature trip to the pearly gates, courtesy of five or so slugs, while on Joe's watch, and Joe has to do what a Joe's gotta do. Check.

Sounds good. I'm always in the market for a good Canadian P.I. and this one looks promising. Very promising, actually, after scanning the first few pages. This is going right to the top of my TBR pile.

Then I flipped the book back to the front cover. Talk about a sucker punch.

But alarming coincidences aside, this one's a keeper. The author has a knack for creating colourful (but not cartoony) characters that pays off when the going gets nasty, and he displays considerable narrative muscle.

In fact, the breezy style, Joe's easy-going manner and his developing relationship with an attractive TV reporter and a well-rendered fight scene between the ex-palooka and a bigger, stronger, younger opponent recalls nobody so much as early Robert B. Parker. I've read a lot of Canadian private eyes over the years, but Joe is one of the best and mosy enjoyable I've come across in a long time, and the one I'm most anxious to see return.

The author was the co-creator of the long-running television series The Beachcombers, fer cryin' out loud. I mean, how much more Canadian can you get? He's also bummed around in front of the cameras for years, appearing in numerous films and TV shows (Hey! Wasn't he biker number three?). And, surprise, surprise, he lives in Toronto.

NOVELS

• Sucker Punch (2007) .. Buy this book

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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