Sing a Worried Song

This is the 7^th Deverell novel that I’ve reviewed (all favorably), and the sixth and last one in the Arthur Beauchamp series. I am a fan of his writing and this series. He balances serious issues with humor and great characters. Much like the fifth book, in Sing a Worried Song, the author bounces back to an early part of protagonist-lawyer Beauchamp’s career, one in which he acted as a prosecutor, rather than his usual role as a defense attorney, for the thrill murder of a Vancouver street clown, Joyal (Joe) Chumpy. When the jury brought back a guilty verdict and Randolph Skyler was sentenced to life in prison, Skyler promised that he would see Beauchamp killed.

Jump forward 25 years to a time Beauchamp has had a remarkably successful career as a defense attorney, and has now retired and moved to Garibaldi Island, and Beauchamp was in the midst of island festivities when he learned of Skyler’s parole. There is conflicting evidence about whether Skyler has mellowed during his time in prison or if he has harbored the same obsessive fantasy about killing his prosecutor. Deverell successfully hides the resolution of this plot line until the very end of the novel. As with the other Deverell books, this one is a winner and gets my strong recommendation.

Deverell has published at least 17 novels, so now that I’ve gotten through all of the Beauchamp books, I’ll find one of his others to read. And, I can hope that this 79-year-old author still has more Beauchamp stories to come.