The Road to Heaven: A Patrick Bird Mystery by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson

A fantastic look at a private investigator’s life. Filled with mishaps and mayhem, this road to heaven is certainly littered with good intentions, and creative inventions of stories, history, and glimpses of character.

The Road to Heaven introduces rookie PI Patrick Bird as his company is hired to find a missing sixteen year old girl. Set in the 60’s, the plot was fast-paced, tricky and dove deep into the lives of the Linklaters’s despite Patrick’s boss just having one goal – find his daughter, she can’t be far.

Called into the case after a long night of catching a cheater, Patrick’s actions and curiosity leave him just one step behind no matter the direction he takes. With Jane, the girl’s stepmother, eager to get answers and Trent being focused on finding his daughter, Bird flies to his own wind speed and quickly realizes Abbie is circling the community. Based in Toronto, the search does expand to Belleville as the old-fashioned form of investigating through newspapers arched at the library, the story unfolds with intrigue and humour.

While driven by the plot, the characters took on a life of their own with just enough revealed to make the reader wonder. The only gap I couldn’t quite sort out is how Belinda, the twin’s mother, so suddenly announced her pregnancy — leaving more of a mystery or simply an oversight to her character. Dying when Abbie and her twin Nelson were just two years old, Abbie finds herself being an amateur sleuth, creating even more reason to find her.

With murder, mayhem and mystery, Stefanovich-Thomson introduces Patrick Bird — a person I would love to be friends with and have as my mentor on his next investigative case. I loved the style of having to investigate without the crutch of modern day Google and old-fashioned leg work, right down to the actual key to open a hotel room door. My only hope is that Rosie is explored in future works and we get to look at some of these same characters again. That, and Patrick Bird can find a new job.

Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson won the 2023 Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime Novella Award. The Road to Heaven is his first novel featuring detective Patrick Bird. He lives in Toronto.

Publisher: Dundurn Press (June 25 2024)
Paperback 5″ x 8″ | 304 pages
ISBN: 9781459753723

Sarah Butland

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I am a struggling artist, a challenging and challenged mother who always thinks she is failing, an emerging freelance writer and reporter, an author with my name on several books crossing genres and always hoping to find more readers who enjoy them.

I am also a successful artist, a wonderful and thriving mother of one, a reacher towards both people and dreams despite all of the turned backs and obstacles in my way. I am a thriving freelance writer and reporter, an author loved by enough readers to make it worthwhile and a discombobulated conundrum who loves to hear new music, tell new tales and meet new authors. And I’m doing something I always dreamed of doing – reviewing books to support others as well as myself and my family.