Jacob's darling detective is Martha, of the Halifax police in the late 1970s. He leads a pleasant-ish existence as an assistant to a collector of rare photographs, and in that capacity he attends an auction where he is surprised to see his mother, the former head librarian at the Halifax Public Library. Surprised, since she is a resident of a nearby 'rest home' (or mental hospital), and more surprised when she throws a bottle of ink at the Robert Capa photo Death on a Leipzig Balcony. Why did she do it? Did it have something to do with the events that led to her breakdown? (And was her breakdown realted to her career in a public library?)
This is noir set against a cozy, slightly nerdy Canadian backdrop, and I found the contrast amusing. Between hunting for criminals, Jacob and Martha spend a lot of time under the covers listening to their favorite noir radio detective series, set in the big city of Toronto.
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