Product Description

Saz has been hired by a mystery employer, the Wavewalker, to investigate the activities of Dr Maxwell North, an internationally acclaimed therapist, healer and guru. She starts by experiencing ?The Process? at a meeting in London, then insinuates herself into North?s life and home, not realising the extent to which North will go to protect the dark secrets of his past. Starting in ?70s San Francisco, then crashing into her own ?90?s London life, the investigation propels Saz into dangerous territory and a highly combustible conclusion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402138 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Born in London and raised in New Zealand, Stella Duffy is the author of ten novels, over thirty stories, and eight plays.  Her novel State of Happiness was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize, and she is currently writing the screenplay adaptation for the feature film production. With Lauren Henderson she co-edited the anthology Tart Noir, from which her story Martha Grace won the 2002 CWA Short Story Award.  She has appeared on BBC Radio 4, in sitcoms, plays and quizzes, and is a performer with comedy company Spontaneous Combustion and theatre company Improbable.  She is an occasional guest with the Comedy Store Players.

Customer Reviews

A compulsive mystery novel.
Although this ostensibly falls under the 'detective fiction' genre, this novel is more than a simple whodunnit. Duffy mixes the focus on the relationships within the novel with a twisting plot that makes compulsive reading.

Even when we think that the mystery has been solved, Duffy surprises us with further action, and an explosive ending that will take all readers by surprise. There is no 'clean-cut, no loose ends' approach that is often the case with this genre, but instead the reader has a sense that these sorts of events could happen in the real world, where doing what is right has nothing to do with what is moral or legal.

Saz Martin is a convincing central character, and much of the novel is regarding the development of her new relationship with Molly. Whilst Duffy does not shy away from their relationship, she is successful in making the depictions of lesbian sex appear in a manner that is not gratuitous.

This book builds upon the first of the novels involving Saz (Calendar Girl), and further paves the way for a strong series.

Something different...
Not at all like I had expected having read other books by the same author but I was pleasantly surprised after taking a while to get into this book.

Borrow it rather than buy it.

Saz Martin series: book 2
Stella Duffy has definitely improved since the first book (Calender girl) as the characters are more refined, especially Saz. There's less involvement from her friends and family though which has both it's positives and negatives. I did enjoy having them all around in the first book as it made her life and experiences more rounded and allowed for a lot of witty dialog. In 'Wavewalker' the dominant character is definitely Saz but Ms Duffy has thrown in a steady girlfriend to keep the balance between case and life. The others feature but not nearly as much.

I do worry about the PI-doctor combo as it bears such a close resemblance to the Lindsay Gordon novels by Val McDermid! In addition to this both of them take a less graphic, more witty/relaxed road through the road of crime fiction. In Ms Duffy's defence Molly doesn't play as big a role in Saz's crime-fighting life as Sophie tends to do in Ms McDermids books..

All that said, I did get hooked and read the book through in a couple of sittings. Has contradictory as it sounds I don't think it was a very gripping mystery. One knows who the bad and good guys are from the get go (or maybe its just me)but there is something about the way it all unravels that kept me reading. The writing is lovely and easy to read. The book isn't so long I lost out on work and isn't too short to feel cheated. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an easy on the brain crime book that to keep them occupied for a few hours.