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Russell Quant #6
Aloha Candy Hearts
Private detective Russell Quant is perplexed. From the middle of the Pacific to the middle of Canada, he's missing clues and proposing answers that only beg questions. The parking lot murder of a passing acquaintance draws Quant to a poem that just might be a treasure map. But is it treasure or extortion he is trailing?
Unsure of his commitment to a case he wasn't even hired for, Russell uncovers the hidden history of Saskatoon through an early homestead, a fallen sports hero, and a second-run movie house. As his search progresses, he becomes the quarry being hunted. What exactly did Russell Quant commit to?
In this fast-paced mystery, Russell tries to balance his professional life with the demands of a wedding, a memorial, and at least one home-cooked meal at mom's. While Russell is reluctantly uncovering the past, the present demands his attention. Murder begets blackmail begets murder. And, with the Hawaiian sand barely shaken free from his hair, Russell is confronted, professionally and personally, with the harsh consequences of indecision.
244 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Anthony Bidulka
23 books266 followersAnthony Bidulka is the author of the long-running Russell Quant mystery series, two thrillers featuring Disaster Recovery Agent Adam Saint, a stand-alone suspense novel, Set Free, and a stand alone mystery novel, Going to Beautiful (2023 Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Crime Novel) and the Merry Bell trilogy mystery series. The third and final book in the Merry Bell trilogy, Home Fires Burn, will be released June 2025.
Praise for Anthony Bidulka's books:
“…promises to become one of those that we look forward to each year and put on our shopping lists without waiting for the reviews.”
Reviewing the Evidence:
...Anthony Bidulka has created a whole new genre: Saskatchewan Gothic, which will both chill and warm your heart. Simply wonderful!
Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce series including The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Going to Beautiful...is a testament not only to Bidulka’s skill in plotting and other novelistic stratagems, but even more to the unique setting and the wonderfully textured characters...
Felice Picano, author of Like People in History and Pursued: Lillian's Story, companion to Pursuit: A Victorian Entertainment
...poignant, often funny, always wise…the quiet joy and hopefulness of this novel are gifts readers will value for years to come.
Gail Bowen, author of the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve mystery series including An Image in the Lake
Anthony Bidulka has pulled off a literary coup in Going to Beautiful. Deftly balancing humour and heart...Bidulka hits it out of the park.
Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
Anthony Bidulka has dedicated his career to writing traditional genre novels in an untraditional way, developing a body of work that often features his Saskatchewan roots and underrepresented, diverse main characters. He tells serious stories in accessible, entertaining, often humorous ways.
Bidulka’s novel Going to Beautiful is the 2023 winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Crime Novel. His books have been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence (three times), the Lambda Literary Award (three times), the Saskatchewan Book Award (five times). Flight of Aquavit was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery, making Bidulka the first Canadian to win in that category. Going to Beautiful, about a gay man rising from the depths of despair in search of joy on the Saskatchewan prairie, also won the Independent Publisher Book Award as the Canada West Best Fiction Gold Medalist.
In his free time Bidulka loves to travel the world, collect art, walk his dogs, obsess over decorating Christmas trees (it’s a thing) and throw a good party.
Anthony's Books:
The Merry Bell trilogy:
Livingsky (2023)
From Sweetgrass Bridge (2024)
Homefires Burn (2025)
Going to Beautiful (2022)
Set Free (2016)
The Adam Saint books:
When The Saints Go Marching In (2013)
The Women of Skawa Island (2014)
The Russell Quant books:
Amuse Bouche (2003)
Flight of Aquavit (2004)
Tapas on the Ramblas (2005)
Stain of the Berry (2006)
Sundowner Ubuntu (2007)
Aloha, Candy Hearts (2009)
Date With a Sheesha (2010)
Dos Equis (2012).
Praise for Anthony Bidulka's books:
“…promises to become one of those that we look forward to each year and put on our shopping lists without waiting for the reviews.”
Reviewing the Evidence:
...Anthony Bidulka has created a whole new genre: Saskatchewan Gothic, which will both chill and warm your heart. Simply wonderful!
Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce series including The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Going to Beautiful...is a testament not only to Bidulka’s skill in plotting and other novelistic stratagems, but even more to the unique setting and the wonderfully textured characters...
Felice Picano, author of Like People in History and Pursued: Lillian's Story, companion to Pursuit: A Victorian Entertainment
...poignant, often funny, always wise…the quiet joy and hopefulness of this novel are gifts readers will value for years to come.
Gail Bowen, author of the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve mystery series including An Image in the Lake
Anthony Bidulka has pulled off a literary coup in Going to Beautiful. Deftly balancing humour and heart...Bidulka hits it out of the park.
Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
Anthony Bidulka has dedicated his career to writing traditional genre novels in an untraditional way, developing a body of work that often features his Saskatchewan roots and underrepresented, diverse main characters. He tells serious stories in accessible, entertaining, often humorous ways.
Bidulka’s novel Going to Beautiful is the 2023 winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Crime Novel. His books have been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence (three times), the Lambda Literary Award (three times), the Saskatchewan Book Award (five times). Flight of Aquavit was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery, making Bidulka the first Canadian to win in that category. Going to Beautiful, about a gay man rising from the depths of despair in search of joy on the Saskatchewan prairie, also won the Independent Publisher Book Award as the Canada West Best Fiction Gold Medalist.
In his free time Bidulka loves to travel the world, collect art, walk his dogs, obsess over decorating Christmas trees (it’s a thing) and throw a good party.
Anthony's Books:
The Merry Bell trilogy:
Livingsky (2023)
From Sweetgrass Bridge (2024)
Homefires Burn (2025)
Going to Beautiful (2022)
Set Free (2016)
The Adam Saint books:
When The Saints Go Marching In (2013)
The Women of Skawa Island (2014)
The Russell Quant books:
Amuse Bouche (2003)
Flight of Aquavit (2004)
Tapas on the Ramblas (2005)
Stain of the Berry (2006)
Sundowner Ubuntu (2007)
Aloha, Candy Hearts (2009)
Date With a Sheesha (2010)
Dos Equis (2012).
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 4, 2012
Rating: 4.4* of five
Your attention please, aspiring mystery novelists: If your killer isn't introduced to the reader of your mystery by p50 of a 224+pp book, you are not playing fair with your readers.
That is the one and only reason I took a tenth of a star from this fun, breezy, sweet mystery, number six in a seven-book (to date) series. I don't know exactly how this happened, but when I looked over my records (snort--when I went and looked at the reviews page for the book!), I was startled to see that I never wrote a review after gobbling this confection down last year. Well, the new book is out (Date with a Sheesha), so it was no effort to pull it out and read it again.
*contented sigh* The book begins with a beautiful man making a beautiful marriage proposal to Russell Quant (Our Hero), in the most gorgeously romantic setting imaginable, and ends with a chapter of the most wonderfully visual romantic wooing that I've ever run across, and in between Our Hero dashes around gay, metropolitan Saskatoon like Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace, getting ready for his best friend's wedding, introducing his mother to smutty literature (accidentally and hilariously), losing his beloved Molly the Miata to a crazed maniac, getting drunk as a lord with his straight police nemesis, and oh yeah solving a murder that has ties to one of Canada's leading (fictional, of course) literary lights and political dynasties.
In series-mystery-talk, this is one with legs. It's always fun to see these characters, and there are some new faces for us to learn to love...Russell's much older sister shows up, lights a candle in the darkness of the Quant family history, and casts a newly nuanced light on Russell's delightfully clueless mom, Kay.
There is never any sex in these books, which is both an analysis and a complaint...but it makes the series very homophobe-friendly, because the challenge isn't to gloss over the ewww-ickness of gay sex, but to relate as best one can to the pains, pangs, and pleasures of falling in love, being in love, and loving with fury and strength the people in one's world. I think that's universal enough to pull in a few readers...I hope it is...and I recommend that a few brave-but-squeamish straight people try reading the Russell Quant series. Amuse Bouche will start you out right. I don't think most of you will be disappointed, who make the leap.
Your attention please, aspiring mystery novelists: If your killer isn't introduced to the reader of your mystery by p50 of a 224+pp book, you are not playing fair with your readers.
That is the one and only reason I took a tenth of a star from this fun, breezy, sweet mystery, number six in a seven-book (to date) series. I don't know exactly how this happened, but when I looked over my records (snort--when I went and looked at the reviews page for the book!), I was startled to see that I never wrote a review after gobbling this confection down last year. Well, the new book is out (Date with a Sheesha), so it was no effort to pull it out and read it again.
*contented sigh* The book begins with a beautiful man making a beautiful marriage proposal to Russell Quant (Our Hero), in the most gorgeously romantic setting imaginable, and ends with a chapter of the most wonderfully visual romantic wooing that I've ever run across, and in between Our Hero dashes around gay, metropolitan Saskatoon like Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace, getting ready for his best friend's wedding, introducing his mother to smutty literature (accidentally and hilariously), losing his beloved Molly the Miata to a crazed maniac, getting drunk as a lord with his straight police nemesis, and oh yeah solving a murder that has ties to one of Canada's leading (fictional, of course) literary lights and political dynasties.
In series-mystery-talk, this is one with legs. It's always fun to see these characters, and there are some new faces for us to learn to love...Russell's much older sister shows up, lights a candle in the darkness of the Quant family history, and casts a newly nuanced light on Russell's delightfully clueless mom, Kay.
There is never any sex in these books, which is both an analysis and a complaint...but it makes the series very homophobe-friendly, because the challenge isn't to gloss over the ewww-ickness of gay sex, but to relate as best one can to the pains, pangs, and pleasures of falling in love, being in love, and loving with fury and strength the people in one's world. I think that's universal enough to pull in a few readers...I hope it is...and I recommend that a few brave-but-squeamish straight people try reading the Russell Quant series. Amuse Bouche will start you out right. I don't think most of you will be disappointed, who make the leap.
April 7, 2010
I liked a lot of things about this book, but will say from the outset I initially picked it up because I thought it was set in Hawaii. It is, but only just a little.
I loved the Hawaiian references even though the hero, Russell Quant, claims to eat at Wo Fat (closed for three years now) and the lengthy scene between hero Quant and fictional cop Kimo was creepy. Sorry, but it was. Paying homage to close pal Neil Plakcy's homicide detective from the "Mahu" series was just weird. I know the two authors are friends but still...it's just a little too much brown-nosing for my taste.
The mystery is pretty cool and I found the Canadian locale to be very intriguing. I liked Russell and his collection of colorful friends.
Some of his inner dialog was amusing. I'm intrigued to read more RQ books now...he's dorky, eccentric and needs to watch more current TV (his scope of influence includes references to Phyllis Lindstrom - that made me laugh - from the Mary Tyler Moore Show from the 70s. A quirky read indeed.
I loved the Hawaiian references even though the hero, Russell Quant, claims to eat at Wo Fat (closed for three years now) and the lengthy scene between hero Quant and fictional cop Kimo was creepy. Sorry, but it was. Paying homage to close pal Neil Plakcy's homicide detective from the "Mahu" series was just weird. I know the two authors are friends but still...it's just a little too much brown-nosing for my taste.
The mystery is pretty cool and I found the Canadian locale to be very intriguing. I liked Russell and his collection of colorful friends.
Some of his inner dialog was amusing. I'm intrigued to read more RQ books now...he's dorky, eccentric and needs to watch more current TV (his scope of influence includes references to Phyllis Lindstrom - that made me laugh - from the Mary Tyler Moore Show from the 70s. A quirky read indeed.
January 13, 2010
loved this Russell Quant book. I swear that I would marry Anthony if he wasnt all ready married and to such a nice guy. Of course he would have to be into older men too. I love this series and not just the main charecter,I care about all of them and am really in love with Serena. Thanks for the good books.
July 22, 2009
The Saskatoon treasure hunt made the story for me.
January 14, 2015
This is the second Russell Quant mystery I read. I skipped along from the first (Amuse Bouche) to the sixth in the Russell Quant Mystery series because of the title. I am planning a trip to Hawaii, and knowing from his first novel that Anthony Bidulka does compelling settings, I was curious what he had to say about Hawaii.
I didn’t find much in the novel itself but his introduction reads like a personal diary: “Waikiki Shore with its perfect slice of Waikiki Beach and view of Friday night fireworks…The people of Hawaii are known throughout the world for their spirit of Aloha. This spirit can only be described as an inner warmth: a feeling of love, respect, and hospitality.”
Aloha, Candy Hearts has this warmth and spirit of Aloha. I also loved the Candy Hearts part. It told me that I should expect to read a delightful romance and in that respect I wasn’t disappointed. This is how Bidulka begins his novel :
“Russell Quant, will you marry me?”
The answer to this catchy question comes only at the end through twists and turns. Anybody who has ever pined over someone will appreciate this romantic sub plot. And for those who didn’t already know, like me, Bidulka gives the reader insight into the tender romance between gay men.
In his acknowledgement pages Bidulka explains how he got the concept of the novel, thanks a whole bunch of people including his “cool” mom and Neil Plakcy creator of the Hawaiian mystery series. In Aloha, Candy Hearts Russell Quant meets Plakcy’s detective Kimo Kanapa’aka. I thought that was pretty hip.
Russell Quant is a fun character and has a set of endearing sideline friends. A bit like Friends but with a mystery twist.
Bidulka mixes mystery with contemporary literature. I was just as interested in reading about Quant’s relationships with his mother and sister as I was with the solving of the crime.
Something else that’s interesting and places this book a notch above are the clues that Quant needs to solve. A map with five verses. Bidulka’s talent with riddles shines here.
There are also dogs, career instabilities and grief.
Anthony Bidulka writes well and is a good storyteller.
I didn’t find much in the novel itself but his introduction reads like a personal diary: “Waikiki Shore with its perfect slice of Waikiki Beach and view of Friday night fireworks…The people of Hawaii are known throughout the world for their spirit of Aloha. This spirit can only be described as an inner warmth: a feeling of love, respect, and hospitality.”
Aloha, Candy Hearts has this warmth and spirit of Aloha. I also loved the Candy Hearts part. It told me that I should expect to read a delightful romance and in that respect I wasn’t disappointed. This is how Bidulka begins his novel :
“Russell Quant, will you marry me?”
The answer to this catchy question comes only at the end through twists and turns. Anybody who has ever pined over someone will appreciate this romantic sub plot. And for those who didn’t already know, like me, Bidulka gives the reader insight into the tender romance between gay men.
In his acknowledgement pages Bidulka explains how he got the concept of the novel, thanks a whole bunch of people including his “cool” mom and Neil Plakcy creator of the Hawaiian mystery series. In Aloha, Candy Hearts Russell Quant meets Plakcy’s detective Kimo Kanapa’aka. I thought that was pretty hip.
Russell Quant is a fun character and has a set of endearing sideline friends. A bit like Friends but with a mystery twist.
Bidulka mixes mystery with contemporary literature. I was just as interested in reading about Quant’s relationships with his mother and sister as I was with the solving of the crime.
Something else that’s interesting and places this book a notch above are the clues that Quant needs to solve. A map with five verses. Bidulka’s talent with riddles shines here.
There are also dogs, career instabilities and grief.
Anthony Bidulka writes well and is a good storyteller.
December 23, 2010
I liked this much more than the previous installment. Even if the setting wasn't as exotic as in the previous books - the story begins in Hawaii, but it revolves around and takes place in Saskatoon - this book had more heart and feeling, in my opinion. At the end of the previous book, Russell revealed that his heart was divided and in the past two years he hasn't been able to deal with it. Russell is both afraid of not being capable of love and at the same time he is afraid of pursuing that tiny chance of love. I wanted to slap some sense into him, because I felt he wasn't being honest, but at the same time I felt close to him.
I also liked the mystery very much, I was a bit blindsided and didn't get the murderer at all. I enjoyed Russell's quest and his adventures a lot.
I also liked the mystery very much, I was a bit blindsided and didn't get the murderer at all. I enjoyed Russell's quest and his adventures a lot.
February 13, 2014
I have mixed feelings about this one, I liked it enough but... there are things that I didn't like at all...
Well Russell... let's see if I got this straight... You got engaged with your boyfriend, you had second thoughts about it the second you said yes but you let him oblivious to that feeling. You came back home and started lusting after a "married" boy you barely know... then you managed to get involved in a new case and put yourself (again) in danger despite you were suspicious things could go wrong... then you decided to be fair to you fiancé and you're willing to let him know you don't love him enough, he deserted you and you're FINE with that??? I mean... that's sounds wrong... I think he is man enough to take your explanations in person but you thought he was avoiding you... I don't get that reaction...
And about the mistery... well a little plain for my taste... I need a break from you Russell, I'll read your next two books later...
Well Russell... let's see if I got this straight... You got engaged with your boyfriend, you had second thoughts about it the second you said yes but you let him oblivious to that feeling. You came back home and started lusting after a "married" boy you barely know... then you managed to get involved in a new case and put yourself (again) in danger despite you were suspicious things could go wrong... then you decided to be fair to you fiancé and you're willing to let him know you don't love him enough, he deserted you and you're FINE with that??? I mean... that's sounds wrong... I think he is man enough to take your explanations in person but you thought he was avoiding you... I don't get that reaction...
And about the mistery... well a little plain for my taste... I need a break from you Russell, I'll read your next two books later...
September 7, 2009
Anthony Bidulka's #6 novel in his Russell Quant mystery series. Not much Hawaii in it, just the first half of chapter one, where Russell get a marriage proposal from his long distance boyfriend, Alex. It's a bit of an awkward situation since Russell has a big, big crush on Ethan from the last book, which we meet again in this one. The plot is set around a treasure hunt around Saskatoon historical landmarks, the mystery is predictable, right down to the lost of Russell most treasure possession. It's more a transition book, where we say goodbye to some characters and welcome new ones into the fowl. Not a bad book, more an ordinary one.
May 30, 2011
I read this out of order, and although it was good, I think I would have rated it higher if I had read it in the order it was intended. I really like the characters, and knowing things before they happen just made this a read, rather than what I expect it would have been if it had been read in order.
October 29, 2013
A good read. It comes about midway through the Russell Quant series. In a way I knew how certain parts of it (especially relationships) will end up later on. These are good characters and i liked that most of it was set in Saskatoon. I liked the mystery. I didn't guess the killer at all. The motive was pretty unexpected too.
November 24, 2014
The 6th book in the Russell Quant series. Like how Bidulka develops the characters and relationships in this series. Apart from the first and last chapter of the book, not much takes place in Hawaii - a little misleading title and cover. http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...
October 26, 2010
The hero is gay ! The book was interesting with lots of happenings as u read on, but the hero is a gay !
I left it half read !!
I left it half read !!
July 29, 2011
fun mystery series
February 19, 2012
I rally enjoy the excellent conversational style of this series and Bidulka's sharply witty use of descriptive phrases.
November 2, 2013
Very enjoyable.
July 5, 2014
I am a great fan of this author and his main character.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews