Sleep While I Sing

by L. R. Wright

A Karl Alberg Mystery (book 2)

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A murder on Canada's Sunshine Coast hits close to home for a former city cop in a mystery of "excellent writing, inventive plots and realistic characters" (Publishers Weekly). Karl Alberg was a big-city cop, for Pete's sake. He solved crimes involving gangsters, druglords, real hardened criminals. He couldn't possibly be stumped by a murder in the sweet coastal town of Sechelt, British Colombia. Yet here he is, facing one of the most gruesome and baffling murders of his career. The woman show more was found propped against a tree, her face scrubbed clean, and her neck slit from one side to the other. And that is all anyone can tell Alberg. Her name? No one knows. So Alberg hires a local artist to draw her picture; maybe someone will recognize her . . . without, you know, the sliced-up neck. It's a brilliant idea. The answers pour in. And they all point to one suspect, which should make Alberg very happy. Except that the individual requiring Alberg's professional focus is the last person he wants to think about. show less

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Member Reviews

6 reviews
Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police heads an investigation into the murder of a woman in a secluded area near Sechelt, in British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. The woman had no identification, and she was a stranger to local residents. Or was she? In the first book in the series, Alberg developed an interest in librarian Cassandra Mitchell, but nothing came of it. Her current boyfriend, actor Roger Galbraith, reacts strangely to the news of the stranger's murder. Does he know more than he's willing to admit?

In the first book in this series, the identity of the murderer is known to the reader from the beginning of the book, and the suspense is psychological. This book is a more typical whodunnit. Alberg took show more longer than I did to identify the murderer, but he eventually got there. I like Alberg, but I'm not sure yet about Cassandra. I'm not sure that she deserves him. I'll make up my mind later. I enjoy the setting and atmosphere in this series, and it's one I'll continue to read. show less
½
The second in the Karl Alberg series, and a rattling good suspense novel. It has less impact that "The Suspect", the first in the series, largely because we have already been introduced to the milieu and to the two central characters -- policeman Karl Alberg, and his sometimes girlfriend. Also, like "The Suspect", the crux of the book are the psychological studies of some key characters. But even if it there are echoes of the earlier book, this is a satisfactory thriller on its own.
½
these are so “page-turnable” .
the women are drawn “better than the men” but they meet their perfect foils in everyone they encounter .
#2 in the series (1986) with RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg and his librarian friend Cassandra Mitchell.
This one won the Arthur Ellis Award for best crime fiction.
½
Margarita y Emilio, dos viudos de sesenta años, deciden casarse, más por miedo a la soledat y la vejez que otra cosa. Pasados unos años de matrimonio, Emilio todavía añora su primera esposa y esto hace que las pequeñas desavenencias y discusiones matrimoniales vayan cogiendo un tono más amargo, y utilizará al gato como pretexto por dar salida a la violencia reprimida.Premio «Edgar Allan Poe» a la mejor novela de misterio en el año 1985.

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Author Information

Picture of author.
13 Works 1,326 Members

Series

Common Knowledge

Original publication date
1986
People/Characters
Karl Alberg; Cassandra Mitchell; Roger Galbraith; Tommy Cummings
Important places
Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada; Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada
First words
The clearing lay fifty feet from the two-lane Sunshine Coast highway.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Then they went to Earl's for a hamburger.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Mystery
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PR9199.3 .W68 .S56Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish LiteratureEnglish literature: Provincial, local, etc.
BISAC

Statistics

Members
150
Popularity
219,226
Reviews
5
Rating
½ (3.35)
Languages
5 — English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
21
ASINs
3