I usually like Spider, his conversational style, his imaginative stories, and his basic humanity. This one, though, just wasn't like his other books. The characters were a little cardboard-y, there's a whole section of flashback to a college sexual encounter that I thought was pointless and vaguely distasteful (I usually enjoy, or at the worst, don't mind, Spider's excursions into sexuality, so this section was disappointing), and a couple of premises I found to be unlikely, such as the telepath character who can rummage around in your memories when it suits the story and not when it doesn't, which seemed like a plot device.I really like a lot of Spider's work, but this one just didn't do it for me. ( )

This mystery begins with a clinically-depressed man planning his suicide. Russell Walker is a widower who has lost his beloved wife Susan and who is estranged from his son Jesse. He lives on an island outside of Vancouver and writes columns for the Toronto Globe and Mail. He is articulate, irreverent, witty, and a leftover hippie. He's almost at the point of committing to death when his old college roommate drops in - after being out of his life for 30 years - with a problem that needs Russell's help to solve.

Zandor Zudenigo was not Russell's first choice as a roommate. Zandor, better known as Smelly, was someone no one even wanted to be near at the Catholic college in upstate New York. Here's Russell's description: "No. 'Smell' doesn't begin to touch it. Even 'stench' is inadequate. Another word is needed. Perhaps 'reek,' or 'miasma,' or possibly 'fetor.' You could have planted beans in his body odor. Some said it would show up on radar. Paint discolored as he walked past. Flies dropped from the sky behind him." What made their relationship possible was that Russell was a really laid-back guy who was very tolerant of differences.

What Russell only figured out years later was that Zandor was a telepath who used his foul odor to keep people far enough away from him that he could survive the contact. It is his telepathy that brings him to Russell. Someone passed over his remote island in a plane that was crashing and Zandor found himself inside a mind that was incredibly evil. He learns that the man is planning to kidnap and murder a family living in a Vancouver suburb. He wants Russell to use his police contacts as a newspaper man to begin an investigation.

Russell doesn't have any police contacts. He makes it clear that he is not a reporter but a columnist and that he writes for a newspaper in Toronto, not Vancouver. The first problem is figuring which variety of police he needs because of the wide variety of jurisdictions involved. Then he has to find the proper place to report this possible crime. After a major runaround, he finally meets a police officer when he prevents her car from being stolen. Constable Nika Mandic wouldn't be his first choice of police ally. After all, she is one of the officers assigned to drive around the van bringing exhibits to the local schools.

This unlikely trio doesn't seem like much of a force when pitted against a man who has killed many and made a study of ways to cause pain. They seem especially mismatched when the killer finds Russell on his island home and tortures him for information on his colleagues.

This was an engaging story with oddball but intriguing heroes and a really horrible villain. The writing was filled with Robinson's wit and prose. His anti-establishment viewpoint and his irreverent attitude shine through. ( )

I have quite a few books by Spider Robinson on my TBR pile and it is a good thing I still have them to look forward to. Spider has not published anything since 2008 due to family tragedies like the death of his wife and daughter. There is a rumour that he is working on another book. I so hope that's true.

I picked this book up after I had already started Spider's last book, Very Hard Choices, and realized that there was a book that went before it and that I had a copy of it. Of course, I had to read this one first but it will be followed immediately by Very Hard Choices. This one features Russell Walker, a pot smoking columnist for the Globe and Mail who lives on an island off the mainland of BC (hmm, who does that sound like?), his college friend, Zandor, who can read minds, and a Vancouver police constable, Nika Mandic. Zandor also lives on an island in the channel between BC mainland and Vancouver Island. He chose that location because it was the only place where he can be far enough away from other people that he won't hear their thoughts. Then he realized he could hear the thoughts of a man piloting a small plane near his island and that the man was a serial killer who was planning to kill the members of a family in a neighbourhood in Vancouver. The pilot thought the plane was going to crash and he was regretting that he would not be able to carry out this plan. Then the plane fixed itself and he flew out of range. Zandor came to Russell because he could, just barely, manage to stand close enough to him to convey what he had "overheard". Russell, in a deep depression from the death of his wife, was contemplating suicide but Zandor's story, along with some brain rewiring he did, got Russell to agree to do something to stop this horror. What Russell did was go to Vancouver to report it to the Vancouver Police Department but he couldn't get anyone to take it seriously until he did a favour for Nika. She was eventually convinced to help and so an unlikely band of misfits takes on the worst serial killer in Canada.

One of the things I enjoy about Spider's writing is how he shows his admiration for Canadian life. He's been living in Canada for a long time but he keeps in touch with things in his birth country of the USA and he likes a lot of things about Canada. Here's an example from page 182
So Nika put on the radio, and we listened to CBC. One day the scumbags and traitors who are systematically leaching every good thing about Canada into anemia so they can feed on the bones will finally succeed in cutting the budget of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration so far that it can no longer produce better radio than any station in America, any day of the week--but it hasn't happened yet, by God. So far the main focus of their attention has been dismantling our health care, education, and military. When they can spare the time to ruin a merely cultural industry it's usually film or television.
Remember this was written in 2003 and in the intervening years we had almost 10 years of Stephen Harper's government. While CBC radio isn't on its deathbed it spent quite a bit of time in the intensive care ward and the jury is still out as to whether it's healthy enough to survive. ( )

A grieving 50-year-old living isolated on an island in British Columbia is contacted by Smelly, a former college roommate of legendary odor who, it turns out must keep people at a distance because he is a telepath, and receiving other's thoughts is painful. But now he tells Russell that he has received the thoughts of an unidentified serial killer, the worst of the worst, as his airplane dipped over Smelly's own isolated home. They must find him and with a female Vancouver cop, they do. To their regret. Robinson's writing style, which includes not as many puns as his lighter work, is entertaining. I wish I could remember his best lines so I can use them in my discussions with others although the way my memory is these days, I'm lucky if I can consistently remember my name. This is an excellent book. Robinson is already a past favorite of mine, this plot...and he's right, this serial killer is The Worst...makes more than palatable the kind of depressing psychol0gical horror I usually don't read. Recommended. ( )

If you only know Spider Robinson from the Callahan series, and I mean the Cross Time Saloon series, not the Clint Eastwood movie franchise, this will be something of a shocker for you. Spider Robinson has a very dark side, but he writes it with the same fluid style he developed with the Callahan stories, and it softens the edges just enough that it comes across as not exactly comic, but not as dark as it could be.

Very Bad Deaths involves a trio of very unlikely protagonists, comprised of an underweight aging journalist prone to collapsed lungs, an overweight telepath who is a former college roommate and a very fit constable working the Community Relations detail, taking on a one of the most sadistic serial killers imaginable. No more vicious than that. Through Robinson’s story telling style, the level of violence is reduced from something that would make Dean Koontz squeamish to something on the order of a Road Runner cartoon, but you are still on the edge of your chair, or bed or seat or other favorite reading place, rooting for the good guys and afraid to stop reading, lest you miss something.

Maybe I have a soft spot for the author or maybe I’m awarding some extra merit for the unique blending of styles, but I’m calling this a four and a half star read. The social commentary is great, the dialog is wonderful, the overall pacing and character development is very well done. Not the usual fare from Spider Robinson, but still an outstanding story. ( )