Kevin Major

Three for Trinity, the third installment in Kevin Major’s Sebastian Synard Mystery series, finds our intrepid hero operating his boutique Newfoundland tour business in the days of Covid-19. After months of enforced inactivity, the establishment of the Atlantic Bubble means he can offer tours for small local groups, and it turns out there is sufficient interest in his services within the Atlantic region to justify going ahead. He decides to focus the tour on the scenic and historic show more Bonivista Peninsula and takes the group north, out of St. John’s, to the village of Trinity. Sebastian is serious about his responsibilities as guide. He’s not seeking distractions. But despite some doubts, he finds himself striking up a tentative romance with tour group member Ailsa Bowmore, a recently divorced inspector with the RCMP. As part of the tour of Trinity, the group attend a play at Rising Tide Theatre. But during the performance, one of the actors, a young man named Lyle Mercer, collapses on stage. Ailsa, assuming a first-responder’s role, and Sebastian attend to the stricken actor and see him rushed off to the hospital. But by next morning Mercer is dead. Speculation leans toward a drug overdose, but the toxicology analysis finds traces of poison. This is murder.

From this intriguing setup Major’s novel takes off. Acting on his own, Sebastian, a registered private investigator, goes undercover within Rising Tide to see what he can find out about Lyle and his relationships with the other actors. Ailsa leads the official investigation. Sebastian’s inquiry takes him beyond the theatre, into the community, where he meets local folks with whom Lyle came into contact, and ultimately deep into the past, where secrets and lies abound. Inevitably, he finds himself butting heads with the RCMP, and Ailsa in particular, who seems stubbornly disinclined to pursue the leads that Sebastian’s uncovered, and whose distant manner and overly decorous conduct leave Sebastian wondering if their evening of intimate disclosures actually happened.

Kevin Major keeps the reader guessing in this propulsive narrative that features abundant twists and turns along with plenty of quirky humour and briny Newfoundland atmosphere. Once again Sebastian’s family life comes into play: his delicate balancing act with ex-wife Samantha, the worry and second-guessing that go along with helping to raise their smart, curious teenage son Nick. Three novels in, Sebastian Synard (“rhymes with innard”) remains an attractive protagonist, a shrewdly observant and empathetic pragmatist whose voice is peppered with snarky asides and cheeky observations on family, love, scotch, and the challenge of making ends meet in Newfoundland at any time but especially during a pandemic. Readers on the hunt for an engaging, fast-paced entertainment will not be disappointed. show less

In Six for Saint-Pierre, the latest of Kevin Major’s engaging crime novels featuring Private Investigator and tour guide Sebastian Synard, when the body of a young man is found on a beach on Saint-Pierre and Miquelon—a French-owned island territory located off the coast of Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula—our intrepid hero is drawn into a search for a killer.

Simon and his partner Mae arrive on Saint-Pierre for a quick visit, to see the sights, but also to spend time with Simon’s son show more Nick, who is taking part in a French immersion program called the Francoforum. On Saint-Pierre, Nick has met a young man, Zach, who is taking part in the same program. The two have become fast friends (Are they more than just friends? muses Simon) and on their first night on the island, Simon and Mae share a meal with Nick and Zach (Simon, of course, pays for everything). They are pleased to find Zach intelligent, good humored, and mature. But everything falls apart the next day when, while on the beach on nearby Ȋle aux Marins, they discover a body floating in shallow water. It’s Zack. Instantly, Simon and Mae’s routine visit to see Nick has become anything but routine, as Simon is called upon to console his son while wondering how this tragedy could have happened.

When the local gendarmerie determine that it was not a case of misadventure and that Zach was murdered, Simon finds himself, at least where the official investigation is concerned, on the outside looking in. Undaunted, he conducts his own independent search for the truth, following leads that he’s convinced are vital to the case but which the police seem to be dismissing. For Simon, it all turns into something of an adventure, one that takes him to several Newfoundland communities, where in one instance has a door slammed in his face, and to the Caribbean island of Martinique, where he is drugged and photographed in a supremely embarrassing situation.

Throughout the novel, Kevin Major keeps things light, with Simon delivering his trademark snarky observations about human nature and obdurate police and navigating a delicate path through his relationship with Mae (which by the end of the novel has gone somewhat off the rails). And again, as in the earlier novels in the series, Simon’s family plays a significant role in the story.

A prize-winning author of some twenty-five books across multiple genres, Kevin Major’s prose is not fancy and gets straight to the point. His many strengths include sharp characterization, sophisticated plotting, and an ability to keep the story moving forward. Six for Saint-Pierre may not break new ground, but it does add a sturdy new chapter to the continuing saga of Simon Synard’s career in crime busting and will leave readers craving more. show less

In Five for Forteau, Kevin Major sends inquisitive PI/tour guide Sebastian Synard out of St. John’s, across the island and north to Labrador where he’s leading a group of four lighthouse enthusiasts on an excursion to some of the region’s most impressive specimens. Along the way, the group encounters a professional photographer named Amanda Thomsen and her partner Jake Moe, on assignment to Point Amour to capture images of the village’s lighthouse, the tallest in Atlantic Canada and show more second tallest in the country. But that evening there is a mishap, and somehow Amanda ends up dead at the base of the lighthouse, having fallen 33 meters from the catwalk. What happened? Was this a tragic accident? Murder? Suicide?

Sebastian has little desire to get involved, but in this instance, as a material witness, he has no choice. The RCMP are following several leads, one of which is Marco, a member of Sebastian’s tour group who seemed to take a great interest in the attractive young photographer upon meeting her at the B&B where the group was staying. Also of interest is Jake, who, following the incident, becomes suspiciously elusive. Sebastian, with help from his partner Mae, follows leads of his own and embarks on inquiries into Amanda’s personal and professional life and Jake’s background to see if he can uncover clues that might illuminate the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate woman’s death.

Five for Forteau presents an intriguing mystery and a story steeped in Newfoundland folklore and history (ancient and modern). As always, Sebastian’s narrative voice is spiced with ironic asides and plenty of snarky observations regarding the peculiarities and excesses of human behaviour. Major maintains a light touch throughout the novel. The pacing is swift with literary flourishes kept to a minimum. While the novel’s entertainment value is high, it also succeeds in touching the reader at a deeper level: a young woman has lost her life under mysterious circumstances, and we want to know why.

In this, the spirited fifth installment of his engaging Sebastian Synard mystery series, Kevin Major—author of twenty-three books—once again proves his mettle. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. show less

In One for the Rock, his first venture into crime fiction, Kevin Major has written a fast-paced and highly enjoyable novel that will appeal to fans of the genre, but which also offers the dual bonus of an engaging narrator and a vividly rendered St. John’s, Newfoundland setting. Recently divorced ex-teacher Sebastian Synard runs a tour operation, St. John’s landmarks being his specialty. It is a boutique enterprise, accepting a half-dozen clients at a time. His latest group holds no show more surprises, demographically speaking, being mostly folk in their latter years (60s to 80s) from the U.S. and Canada, the exception being 40-something Renée Sipp, from France. They set out on their initial excursion, a trek along Signal Hill. But there’s a mishap, fatal as it turns out. One trekker, Graham, annoyingly attached to his cell phone, tumbles over a guard rail to his death. By all accounts the incident seems an unfortunate accident. But something doesn’t add up, and Sebastian, in possession of Graham’s phone, becomes suspicious and to satisfy his curiosity conducts a haphazard inquiry in parallel with the official police investigation. From this point the novel takes flight, drawing the reader into a deepening mystery that veers along unforeseen twists and turns and eventually places Sebastian in life-threatening danger. One of the delights of this breezy entertainment is Sebastian’s complex personal life, which includes a young son who knows how to teach his father a thing or two about searching the internet, and an ex-wife who rarely passes up an opportunity to point out her ex-husband's shortcomings and who, as it happens, is romantically involved with the lead detective in the murder case. Sebastian’s sardonic attitude toward life and living is reflected in his first-person narrative voice, which peppers the text with plenty of ironic asides and snarky observations about human nature and mainlanders' assumptions about Newfoundland. One for the Rock may not be the most profound novel you’ll encounter this year, but Kevin Major—a veteran writer with books of adult and YA fiction, poetry, history, and drama to his credit—knows how to spin a good yarn and not waste a single word while doing it. show less