The God Game

December 15, 2017
An aide to an up-and-coming Queen's Park minister hires private investigator Dan Sharp (The Jade Butterfly, 2015, etc.) to find his missing husband.Those who rise to prominence in Canada's national government often get their start in provincial politics. So it's no surprise that Ontario minister of educational reforms Alec Henderson, in promoting progressive curriculum reform in local schools, is paving the way for his bid on the national stage. A scandal among his staff, however, could ruin Henderson's chances. So his top aide, Peter Hansen, demands Dan's absolute discretion when he hires the detective to find Tony Moran, his missing husband. Not so much because Hansen and Moran are gay: Dan sees Canada as way ahead of its southern neighbor on the issue of same-sex unions. But Tony's a gambler, and before he scarpered, he lost serious sums to some unsavory folks. That's a connection that might not go down too well with Canadian voters. Before Dan can do much looking, he discovers another wrinkle in the already convoluted case. Local journalist Simon Bradley calls him to insist that Moran's disappearance is linked to the apparent suicide of opposition party member John Badger Wilkens III. Bedeviled by the intricacies of planning his own upcoming wedding to policeman Nick Trposki, Dan nevertheless finds himself increasingly drawn into an intrigue whose consequences could be significant.Fans of Canadian mystery fiction will find an urban and urbane alternative to "death by snowshoe."

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January 1, 2018
A highly placed aide at the Ontario legislature hires private detective Dan Sharp to find his gambling-addicted husband in the harrowing fifth installment of this series from Round. While investigating that case, Dan discovers connections to a major scandal brewing that could do irreparable harm to the government, John Wilkens, an elected member of the provincial government and a man who knew too much about the scandal, is found hanging from a bridge after being disgraced and fired for allegedly misusing public funds. Dan digs through layers of political dirty dealing, seeking out “the Magus,” an unknown person who can secretively make or break political lives. When Dan confronts an ambitious online news reporter who bugged his phone, he realizes they’re both on the same trail—and when the reporter ends up dead and Dan becomes a suspect, it’s apparent that the corruption goes much further than he first thought. Aside from all that, he’s trying to plan a trip to the West Coast for his son’s graduation and his own wedding to Nick, a Toronto cop. Round’s fiction admirably turns Canadian politics into thriller material, and readers who enjoy political intrigue will want to give this a look.