Laurence Gough

A terrifying novel set in Vancouver of drug smuggling and the lives of two men, one a dealer and the other in need of money, caught up in the heinous trade.
Detectives Willows and Parker are sent to investigate an abandoned bloodstained car and so begins a dark, sometimes humourous, mostly violent story that held me to the end.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Endeavour via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

Winston Churchill is purported to have called Vancouver "the most beautiful city in the world." And with Douglas Coupland's "city of glass" occupying a setting punctuated by mountains, water, and forests, Vancouver would certainly be a prime candidate to win that category.

Laurence Gough's series of twelve Willows & Parker mysteries strive to portray a grittier underside to the beauty. Detectives on the Vancouver police force, Jack Willows and Claire Parker deal with the seamier side of show more humanity, with their perception of the city more as simply a grid of streets than a modernistic Eden.

The problem with the mysteries is that they're not gritty enough. Fall Down Easy is a procedural, but it's a PG-rated procedural. At its center is a serial bank robber who exploits unsuspecting young female bank employees to forward his crimes, only to treat them badly in the end, but in the end, though a cad, he really turns out to be a rather mild-mannered fellow. Willows and Parker themselves belong to a detective squad who, while world-weary, don't speak a single four-letter word. (Is this evidence of the legendary Canadian niceness?)

The book sticks closely to being a pretty strict procedural. None of the characters, particularly Willows and Parker themselves, carries much depth as characters. That was fine with me. It was sufficient to watch the case progress progress and for me as reader to try to figure out exactly what was going on. I happen to have read some of the later Willows & Parker books (Fall Down Easy lands about midway in the series), where they become domestic and we see more of their home life, and those episodes did nothing to strengthen their stories. Fall Down Easy kept its focus on the business-at-hand.

Unfortunately, as it comes to its climax, the Gough has chosen to give it a Keystone Kops-like denouement. So much for gritty underside.

I originally took up reading the Willows & Parker books because of my own fondness for Vancouver. I thought it would be fun reading stories where I could revisit a setting I loved. But having read three or four of them them now, I have to ask myself, "Is the series good enough that I would continue reading it if were set, say, in Des Moines?" And I have to conclude that it isn't. show less

This is the first book by Laurence Gough that I have read although I have heard good things about the Willows and Parker series. I wasn't initially grabbed by this book but it sort of grew on me.

The book opens with Shelley, a good looking small-time thief, trying to decide which bathing suit looks better on him. To say that Shelley is vain about his looks is to indulge in understatement. He's also not a very nice guy. He took a hatchet to the girl next door's Mazda Miata because she kept show more parking on the street where he wanted to park. And he's not very smart. He breaks into Willows car at the beach parking lot in plain sight of a man with a metal detector. When Shelley gets picked up at the beach by Bo who is involved with some Asian gangsters you almost want him to get roughed up by them. Meanwhile, Parker and Willows get called in on a murder of a real estate agent, Zagros Galee. They quickly find out that Mr. Galee was not a very successful real estate agent but recently he has had lots of money. In fact, they find an envelope filled with $30,000 in his home study. Mr. Galee was a womanizer and recently a beautiful red head has been seen with him. Bo is a beautiful red head. The reader doesn't have to be too clever to figure out that Shelley's new girl is somehow involved with Zagros Galee's murder. The climatic conclusion has Shelley and Bo being cornered by Bo's erstwhile associates just as Willows and Parker are closing in on them.

I would probably read more books by Laurence Gough if they came my way. I like the chemistry between Parker and Willows and Willows' kids add something unique to the mix. show less

In cold and rainy Vancouver, Canada, an odd assortment of people are being picked off by a sniper who carefully prepares for each kill by dressing his male self in gaudy drag. The Vancouver police are truly stumped. This is Gough's first book and introduces Vancouver homicide detectives Jack Willows and Clare Parker. He has an interesting way with characters and I'm anxious to read the next in the series to see what is 'first book' and what is regular Gough.