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TV North: everything you wanted to know about Canadian television by Peter Kenter, with notes by Martin Levin
An attempt at an encyclopaedia-esque look at Canadian TV from the 50s to about 2001, Kenter's work is intended to fill in gaps left by what he sees as a failure to preserve Canadian heritage in this area. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what purpose is served by including such made-in-Canada-but-American-in-all-other-ways shows as, say, Highlander, Earth Final Conflict, or even Robocrap the series, but leaving out, say, Kung Fu the Legend Continues, or others that escape even me just now. And how can you trust someone who doesn't understand the inherent creepiness of the Uncle Bobby show, and who writes of Stompin' Tom's Canada: "Singer/songwriter Stompin' Tom from New Brunswick"[emphasis mine]. I mean, you can't trust someone like that.
Cold is the Grave: an Inspector Banks mystery by Peter Robinson
Banks begins the novel still in disgrace professionally, though rather less so than he was at the start of the last story, his personal life still in disarray, and considering a transfer out of Eastvale. Then something unexpected happens: as he prepares for a weekend in Paris with his daughter he receives a phone call from local Chief Constable Riddle, asking for a favour. As Riddle is the man responsible for Banks' current professional problems (in all fairness, Banks did punch him in the face a couple of books back), this is quite a surprise. But the favour involves Riddle's runaway teenage daughter. Riddle's young son accidentally stumbled across pictures of the girl on a porn-site, and now Riddle wants the girl found and brought home.
As the father of a teenage girl himself, Banks can hardly refuse. And helping Riddle will help Banks' own career. And for a detective of Banks' calibre, finding the girl is only a weekend's work, though persuading her to come home is more difficult. But once that's done, Banks can get on with the work of solving the murder of a minor crook-turned-security-guard. Surely there can't be any connection between that crime and Riddle's sixteen-year-old daughter, can there?