Book Review: The Concrete Vineyard by Cam Lang
The Details
I have received a copy of this book, free of charge, in exchange for an honest review.
Media Type: Ebook
Title: The Concrete Vineyard
Author: Cam Lang
Publisher: Self-published
Pages/Length: Ebook; 372
Release Date: December 2, 2020
Source: Author
Packing an intellectual punch, this smart murder/mystery will have you guessing and gripped! Why would anyone want to murder one of the most respected senior citizens, Niagara-on-the-Lake has ever had? Retired history professor Edward Mitchell was surely not long for the grave, so why would someone risk life in prison to kill him? Picking up the clues is the reluctant Homicide Chief Detective, Bryan Dee. Thinking he might be out of his depth he is happy to enlist the aid of his friend, Kris Gage. But when Dee reads the deceased’s last entry in his diary, ‘time to take care of K. Gage,’ he becomes torn between investigation and friendship.
As an urban planner, Gage is used to the bureaucracy of planning. Following the money, he finds himself in the middle of corrupt developers who seek to take all the charm out of the area. Has Niagara-on-the-Lake become Niagara-on-the-Take?
The Review
Murder mysteries are fairly new to my preferred reading genres, but I’ve been having a blast with them. It’s a lot of fun to play amateur detective alongside a good character, and even more fun to get hit with that perfect unseen twist. When Cam Lang offered me The Concrete Vineyard for review, I was excited to give it a shot! I actually visited the area this is set in pre-Covid, and that made me even more eager to dive right in.
Starting with the characters, which we all know are my favorite part, Lang knocks it out of the park. I had a lot of love for Kris. His witty personality, his love of bicycle rides, and his deep love for his family all wrapped up into a great character. I appreciated that he tackled everything that came his way with grit and grace. Even better though, was the fact that all of the other characters around him weren’t flat. We all know how easy it is for characters to fade into the background. Instead, they were all an excellent match for Kris’ wit, and had unique personalities all their own.
In terms of plot, I enjoyed the journey for the most part. I’ll admit, that there were places during this story that I felt dragged a bit. Some of the paragraphs felt more wordy than they needed to be, which made it so that I had to re-read pages sometimes to get to the meat of the story. I won’t deny that I also skimmed a few chapters that were very dialogue heavy after the first few. They didn’t always feel like they advanced the plot. The good part is that there is definitely not a plot hole in sight. If you are the type of reader who worries about that sort of things, fear not.
It was the plot-twist that really got me, and I am happy to report that the ending threw me for a loop as well. This was one of the few books I’ve read where I wasn’t sure who the killer was at all, and that was a wonderful feeling!
