After the Horses

January 19, 2015
This is the third book in the Dan Sharp Mystery series, the first of which (Lake on the Mountain) won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for best gay mystery. On June 4, 1989, a young girl named Ling disappears in the confusion of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and is never seen again, at least in China. Twenty years later, Ren Hao, a Taiwanese businessman, hires missing-persons investigator Dan Sharp to find his sister, after he sees an online photo of a woman in a bakery in Canada whom he believes is Ling. The case becomes complicated when what began as a simple missing persons case quickly expands to international intrigue. A key person of interest in the case turns up dead, and Dan discovers that a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent is following him. Although Round's series has been praised for its character development, in this book, Dan's carefully crafted personal story line overshadows the mystery. It isn't until a major twist presents itself that readers are reminded this is not just a novel about Dan, but also a mystery about a missing woman.

December 15, 2015
Toronto PI Dan Sharp doesn't usually refuse a case. But when a bar owner is murdered, he doesn't want anything to do with it, thanks to rumors the victim was killed by a cop. But when the dead man's former customers start dying off, Sharp can't stay out of it any longer, especially when the clues point him in the direction of Toronto's gay community. As a gay man, Dan feels an obligation to make sure the case is investigated with an open mind. Like all the volumes in this series, this is a solidly plotted, suspenseful mystery with appeal to anyone who enjoys PI novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)