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A Matter of Malice: A DreadfulWater Mystery Kindle Edition
From the award-winning and #1 bestselling author of Sufferance and Indians on Vacation
Can a reality TV show solve a cold case?
When a TV producer asks Thumps to assist with an episode about a local woman from a wealthy family whose death was ruled “misadventure,” he is reluctant to get involved. Then the producer dies in the exact same manner, and Thumps finds himself solving two cases.
The crew of Malice Aforethought, a true-crime reality-TV show, shows up in Chinook to do an episode about the death of Trudy Samuels. Trudy’s death had originally been ruled accidental, but with ratings in mind, one of the producers, Nina Maslow, wants to prove it was murder?and she wants Thumps to help. Thumps is reluctant to get involved. But then Nina dies in the exact same place and in the exact same way as Trudy. Are the two deaths related? Or are there two murderers on the loose in Chinook? Thumps uses Nina’s Malice Aforethought files to try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, and in the process discovers that the producer had already started work on another case that is close to Thumps’s heart: the Obsidian murders.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
- Publication dateJan. 29 2019
- File size919 KB
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Product description
About the Author
THOMAS KING is an award-winning writer and photographer. His critically acclaimed, bestselling books include Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; One Good Story, That One; Truth and Bright Water; A Short History of Indians in Canada; The Back of the Turtle (winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction); The Inconvenient Indian (winner of the RBC Taylor Prize); Indians on Vacation; Sufferance;and the poetry collection 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin. A Companion of the Order of Canada and the recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, Thomas King lives in Guelph, Ontario.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.Review
“The characters are really clever. . . . The dialogue is crisp and just begs to head to the screen.” -- The Globe and Mail
“Let’s hope that DreadfulWater shows up again and again.” -- Books in Canada
“”The writing is feisty and fast . . . King is having fun here . . . Mark Twain was of the opinion that the truth was the funniest joke in the world. All good satire springs from that notion, and this book qualifies as such.” -- The Globe and Mail
“Wry wit, clever writing, amusing characters. . . . [Readers] are going to love sharing this adventure with Thumps DreadfulWater.” -- Tony Hillerman
“Whimsical and wry, large-hearted and at times laugh out loud funny, but with an underlying gravitas and significance.” -- Quill & Quire --This text refers to the paperback edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B078R4QBW6
- Publisher : HarperCollins Publishers (Jan. 29 2019)
- Language : English
- File size : 919 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 396 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #102,518 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #359 in Native Canadian Literature
- #436 in Native American Literature (Books)
- #2,636 in Police Procedurals (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Thomas King is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter, and photographer. His many books include the novels Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; Truth and Bright Water; two short story collections, One Good Story, That One (Minnesota, 2013) and A Short History of Indians in Canada (Minnesota, 2013); nonfiction, The Truth About Stories (Minnesota, 2005); and the children's books A Coyote Columbus Story, Coyote Sings to the Moon, Coyote's New Suit, and A Coyote Solstice Tale. King edited the literary anthology All My Relations and wrote and starred in the popular CBC radio series, The Dead Dog Café. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2004. He has taught Native literature and history and creative writing at the University of Lethbridge, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Guelph and is now retired and lives in Guelph, Ontario.
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I have only read two other books by Thomas King and found them highly enjoyable.; The terrific Back of the Turtle which won the Governor Generals Award for fiction, and also The Inconvenient Indian winner of several non-fiction awards which mixed history and humour.
Thumps is experiencing a bad time in his life. His girlfriend, recovering from an illness, has gone away. Her whereabouts are unknown to him, and she is not answering the phone. He is without transportation since his car was totalled. His pet cat has gone missing. He has just learned that his diabetes is worsening, and has to switch from pills to insulin injections.
During this streak of bad luck, Thumps is asked by the producers of a TV reality show Malice Aforethought to participate. . The popular show focuses on true crime cases with the intent of bringing out new facts and perhaps solutions. This time they are shooting a film in Chinook, investigating the death of a young girl from a wealthy family. It was believed to be accident or suicide, but the question of murder will add to the shows’ drama. Thumps is reluctant to do have anything to do with the show. A producer who does exhaustive research on each episode’s crime topic is found dead at the same place and in the same manner as the teenaged girl whose death was being investigated for TV.
Thumps becomes an unwilling participant because his past in law enforcement would give greater authenticity to the program. He has been tricked and bribed with files about a past unsolved case which interests him greatly.
Despite all Thumps personal problems, he manages to solve three murder cases. I felt there was a lack of tension and suspense on my part. I do want to know more about Thumps DreadfulWater, his personal life and his investigative skills. His character and personality were very well developed. I did not come to know his friends and townspeople as well as I hoped, probably because I had not read the former books in the series.
If you've liked the previous ones you'll sure like this one. If you've not read a DreadfulWater mystery yet, start at the beginning.