White Lightning by Melissa Yi

Yi’s novel is full of intrigue with neat touches of humour and Prohibition history.

This is the 9th novel in the Hope Sze medical thriller series. Although a series, each novel can be read as a stand-alone. It opens with two six-year-old boys at an orphanage and the reader is immediately drawn into the novel.

Yi’s protagonist, Hope Sze, is set for a weekend full of romance and fun but events and villains pop up to create a mystery to be solved. What makes the novel interesting is the gruesome surprise found in the chimney of the Rumrunner’s Rest, an inn from the times of Al Capone, Prohibition and dazzling jazz bands of the twenties.

Yi knows how to build suspense. I particularly liked the ending of Chapter 24.

“As he clucked over his damaged USB cable, she gazed over his shoulder into the depths of his duffel bag and went very still. She’d spotted a knife.

We meet incredible characters who are disguised and dressed in costumes appropriate for Rogue Con. Herein lies Yi’s strength as a storyteller. Colourful personalities, a ghost, a stalker, a mystery, chilling facts, unexpected events and a satisfying ending. There is a dose of humour mixed in the pages which is a welcome ingredient to her stories. The plot flows along just right and we find enough twists and turns to keep our nose in the book.

All in all, this was an entertaining read. It kept me interested from page one.

Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, M.D., is a Canadian emergency doctor with a special interest in health education. She aims to make research accessible and engaging for everyone. Her columns appear regularly in The Medical Post. She is the lead author of a study on spinal wounds published in Spine. Under the name Melissa Yi, she writes the searing Hope Sze medical mystery series, hailed as “entertaining and insightful” by Publishers Weekly and praised for its “wonderful characters and plot” on CBC Radio. She also writes speculative fiction, romance, children’s literature, and medical memoir. She has two small children, one larger husband, and a very loud Rottweiler. She makes friends on Facebook and Twitter (@dr_sassy) and welcomes visitors at www.melissayuaninnes.com.

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Olo Books (Dec 1 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 246 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1927341981
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1927341988
Website

Growing up in South Branch, Allan Hudson was encouraged to read from an early age by his mother who was a schoolteacher. He lives in Dieppe, NB, with his wife Gloria. He has enjoyed a lifetime of adventure, travel and uses his many experiences as ideas for his writing. He is an author of action/adventure novels, historical fiction and a short story collection. His short stories – The Ship Breakers & In the Abyss – received Honourable Mention in the New Brunswick Writer’s Federation competition. He has stories published on commuterlit.com, The Golden Ratio and his blog - South Branch Scribbler.