Two Envelopes And A Phone’s Reviews > The List of Adrian Messenger > Status Update

A few notes on this wonderful book: (a) It does seem the most like a Nesbo book - Redeemer meets The Snowman - than any other by MacDonald (of course it's a later one, late 1950s); (b) it's also a bit like reading The Alienist, which I didn't love at the end, but which was gripping a lot of the time (this one is more consistent); (c) I can see why this one is highly revered, always gets mentioned.

So far, it’s terrific. I never thought there would be a Mystery novel that would remind me - even if only somewhat - of one of my Top 5 favourites: The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo. But that’s what’s happening - I guess mainly because of the scenes where we cut to “Smith Brown-Jones”. Something like that went on in The Redeemer…and the complexity at play here might end up mirroring the complex premise of Nesbo’s great book.

Wow. Just by sheer coincidence, it seems that I'm on a hunt to see how many novels I can accidentally string together in which Toronto is mentioned. Miro, then A Sweet, Sweet Summer, and now this in its opening chapter. And Toronto came up, just as I was digesting the fact that the name Pamela seemed to be occurring in every book I read! Anyway, here again we'll see if he can top The Polferry Riddle.