The God Game: A Dan Sharp Mystery (Dan Sharp Mystery, #5)

by Jeffrey Round

2019 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Mystery - Finalist



Private investigator Dan Sharp finds himself caught up in a political murder.



When the husband of a Queen's Park aide runs off to escape his gambling debts, private investigator Dan Sharp is hired to track him down. As the city's political landscape verges on the bizarre - with a crack-using mayor and a major scandal looming - Dan finds himself pitted against a mysterious figure known for making or breaking the reputations of upcoming politicians. It's not until a body turns up on his doorstep that Dan realizes he's being punished for sticking his nose into dirty politics. It's left to him to catch the killer and prove his own innocence.

• ISBN10: 1459740114
• ISBN13: 9781459740112
• Publish Date: 3 February 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Dundurn Press
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 328
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The God Game is Jeffrey Round's 5th mystery featuring Canadian P.I. Dan Sharp. This series is a little more gritty and modern than the bulk of the series I read and review, but the Dan Sharp books are consistent winners and great reads, so I make an exception.

I have enjoyed the characters' development over the course of the series and the author has a deft hand with foreshadowing and planning. In the forward, Jeffrey Round says that as he wrote the book, he feared it would be too over the top and unbelievable but that as time went on, the political landscape in the USA and Canada made it more of a realistically cautionary tale than pure fiction.

Although the book is brutal and gritty in places, the violence is never gratuitous and always serves to move the plot along and provide a counterpoint to the more personal and emotional side of the narrative.

It's a fairly substantial (335 page) book and is very well written. It could definitely be read as a standalone, all the necessary background info is provided without feeling forced or unnatural. Published by Dundurn and released on Feb, 2018 in ebook and paperback formats.

Four stars, I think this one is my favorite in the series thus far.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.