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Rating: 
Summary: Looks good, feels good, reads good
Review: All the reviews I've been reading about Flight of Aquavit and author Anthony Bidulka have it right.....We've a great new detective and a marvelous new mystery writer in our midst. Just give in to it and enjoy.
Russell Quant is a wonderful character who over a scant two books in this series thus far (hopefully the beginning of many more)manages to reach out and touch the reader with his humanness, his wit, candour, smart aleck remarks, those fabulous wonderpants and not least of all the people with whom he surrounds himself.
And, in the same scant two books, Bidulka has grown as an author. No lazy writer here. Where others might use a tried and true phraseology or genre standbys, he often tries for something new and different and almost always succeeds. At times I forgot I was reading a mystery novel and, written in the first person as the RQ novels are, I was immersed in a most entertaining autobiography. He never resists an good opportunity to talk about his locales, the smells, what someone was wearing and, most beguiling, what they were drinking and eating. A full, well-rounded and tasty life is set out before the reader. Go ahead and take a bite.
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Summary: Looking for a cozy read?
Review: Anthony Bidulka has a unique voice. This is a mystery come drama come humourous dialogue come social commentary and most especially, come cozy read. I have not yet read Amuse Bouche (now hard to get, but I understand paperback version comes out next month) but it didn't seem to matter. I was immediately pulled into the very real life of Russell Quant, his family and friends.This certainly isn't a rough and tough and gritty murder mystery - barely any blood at all - so if that is what you're looking for, this wouldn't be for you - but it is a more rounded story with characterization at its core. Yet it doesn't knock you over the head with it - none of these long, drawn out internal discussions and ad nauseum descriptions of feelings, but rather just sharp, quick, wry turns of phrase and then the author moves on to the next. Leaving the reader with a seed in your mind that later comes to the forefront and gives you pause...or a good chuckle.
Perfect bit of fun, easy reading.
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Summary: Unique Story/Good Read/ Try it
Review: Bidulka was an unknown author to me until a friend recommended. I read it over a weekend and will now recommend to my book club. What I want to know is, when did Bidulka meet my mother and decide to write about her in his book? She's not Ukrainian like Russell Quant's mother, but after that, they're the same person! Try it. I think you'll like it and maybe you'll see someone you know too. And - I've decided my next holiday is to New York City to try some Aquavit and herring...that's after I've finished drinking my pitcher of Red Apple martinis.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Mystery/Entertaining Story
Review: Flight of Aquavit immediately plunges us into a state of wanting to know more about more about a lot of things: Why is our detective Russell being threatened about a case he doesn't have? Why has his distant, Ukrainian mother come to stay with him? Who is his mysterious new client? And who is the blackmailer known as Loverboy? And are all these strands of his life tied together? I'd say, a pretty good set up - and that's all in Chapter One.
And there's more. Russell is a very compelling character. An ex-cop living in a small city, he is a fairly inexperienced detective, he's gay, he drives a cool car and has some cool friends who are not your typical gang of ditsy queens or muscle boys they are big "C" characters. And asyou read, you want to learn more about all of them.
This is the second in Bidulka's Russell Quant Mystery series. I am a fan of mystery series novels. The only thing that drives me crazy about them is when in subsequent books the author, desperate not to confuse readers who haven't read earlier books in the series, is forced to regurgitate much of the material I already know and have read. (In my case I read the first, Amuse Bouche, and the second, Flight of Aquavit) in quick sucession. And except in one or two places, Bidulka deftly manages to escape this problem by restating important details in shorter form or in ways that provide even more insight into a character's background. Thank you! For some of the characters - well, one in particular - something so momentous occured in between books that I wondered for a while if I'd missed something. But no, Bidulka has simply decided that his characters have continued to have lives in between when he writes about them and fills us in when he gets back to them. This will ensure that, unlike some other series writers, Russell and his gang will age along with the series and, perhaps, if this series continues for a long time, which I heartily hope it does,we'll one day get to read about Russell's flat tummy grow paunchy and his bones grow a little weary.
Although ultimately a serious story, Bidulka presents much of his material in a engaging light-hearted manner. I think you will enjoy this book on a lazy winter afternoon by the fire or on a beach somewhere after Xmas. And then you'll wait for the next.
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Summary: Go Russell Go!
Review: Hoorah for an unapologetically gay Canadian private detective. A detective who takes us on a flight of fancy, romance, danger and personal travails. As soon as I read Flight of Aquavit I had to get a copy of the first Russell Quant Mystery, Amuse Bouche (although you don't have to read the first to understand the second - but it makes for a very pleasureable weekend!)
The mystery behind this deceivingly light-hearted tale packs a punch. Russell's client is not only the victim of a crime but changing who he is as we read. As a reader, I learned to enjoy the voyage of the story as much as the twists and turns and eventual solving of the mystery.
In the first book Bidulka laid the groundwork for some interesting characters and here he really opens up and we get the sense that these people have being growing and developing and living lives even while we weren't reading about them.
There is a wit in Bidulka's writing that gave me pause to smile and chuckle...and he throws in these scenes, sometimes just a word or two that made me sniffle too.
Mr. Bidulka - I imaptiently await the next one.
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Summary: A True Page Turner
Review: I bought Tony's first book "Amuse Bouche" when it came out and enjoyed reading it for both it's mystery and setting (I also live in Saskatoon). But his latest book, Flight of Aquavit, was a true page turner. I read the first 175 pages in the first day and could hardly put it down. His gay detective, Russell Quant, is a realistic and true character that you could truly belive lives in Saskatoon. I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series.
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Summary: Great New Hero for Canadian Mystery Landscape
Review: I just read Flight of Aquavit and rushed out to find a copy of the first in the series, Amuse Bouche. In both the hero is tracking down a criminal...murderer, blackmailer...and in both he must travel to do so...France, New York City. Sounds like standard fare, but it isn't. Far from it. Russell Quant is a funny, independant, young, gay, Canadian, ex-cop doing his bit to play the pseudo-tough PI guy. Certainly the story lines circulate around the gay world, but not exclusively, and even when it does, I am filled with curiosity to learn about stuff I don't know a lot about. What's it like to go onto a chat room and hook up with someone (not only a gay thing I know)?; what's it like in a Saskatchewan gay club?; What's it like when mom comes to visit for two weeks?
This story isn't LA hot, NYC chic, Boston tough or anything other than Canadian, right down to Quant's Ukrainian mother, aboriginal restaurant owner friend, the wild winter weather, the quirky senses of humour, etc etc.
With Bidulka's Russell Quant series, you will find a twisting and turning mystery, interesting characters who grow with every page, some romance, some comedy, some pause to think and some pretty darn good, easy to read writing from a new writer in Canada. This isn't hard, or edgy or dark or brooding - which I like too - but rather a lot of fun.
Loved it.
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Summary: Anthony, WRITE FASTER!
Review: I read the first of the Russell Quant mysteries and was pleasantly surprised. First of all a very well written mystery, interesting characters and well plotted. When I saw Anthony Bidulka had a second novel published, I immediately ordered it and was VERY pleased. It is better than the first, and Anthony shows real growth as a mystery writer. The characters are becomming more full and complex and we meet Russell's mother (Don't we all know someone like her). It isn't necessary to be gay to enjoy these stories. They are such well written mysteries, they truly stand on their own. But as a Gay reader, it so nice to find a writer who puts the gay aspects of his lead secondary to the mystery. My only suggestion is Russell needs a boyfriend, and anthony as I said in my head, PLEASE WRITE FASTER, I can't wait for the next book. (And by the way it is so nice learning about Saskatoon!)
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Summary: A joy from start to finish
Review: If you're looking for a good book to pair with a relaxing evening, soft couch, fire, wine or cocoa, this is it. I read the whole thing in two sittings. And will rush out tomorrow to find the first one in the series.
Russell Quant is a human, real character who is a regular guy and just happens to be a PI and gay and lives on the Canadian prairie. What's curious is that what makes him "regular" also makes him a very interesting and compelling character. Sure the mystery and friends and family who surround him are wonderful...and try awful hard to overshadow Mr. Quant, but in the end, you really just want to know how Russell fares through it all.
Bring it on, Mr. Bidulka. We are ready for MORE. (And thanks for the wonderful weekend of reading ...and the red apple martini recipe)
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Summary: Russell Quant is my new hero
Review: With a cover you want to drink, a title that makes you even more thirsty...I was ready to slurp up this new Russell Quant Mystery. Russell's new client, Daniel Guest, is one of those characters that many people, gay and straight, can relate to. He did something he didn't want anyone to know about and now he's been caught and is being blackmailed. Not that many of us have been blackmailed, but we've all done something naughty once upon a time and worried about getting caught.
Daniel Guest travels a long and bumpy road in these 300 pages, and even on the last page...well, I'll let you read that. But on the journey we're taken on a wild ride from freezing cold parking lot pickups to NYC and Canadian gay clubs to a wild episode in the woolly winter wilderness that I was sure would be the end of someone!
As with the first book, I love Russell's group of friends/family - and we learn so much more about them here - but surprising things, not just what they're wearing or drinking, but these are real people going through real things...even if they are subsidiary characters in a mystery novel, we come to care about them and sometimes I wished it was a book about them rather than a whodunit...although ultimately I enjoyed both.
New character alert - Kay Wistonchuk - the mother! The author plumbs some real emotional and personal depth here. I hope Kay sticks around for another adventure.
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