The Jade Butterfly

January 19, 2015
This is the third book in the Dan Sharp Mystery series, the first of which (Lake on the Mountain) won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for best gay mystery. On June 4, 1989, a young girl named Ling disappears in the confusion of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and is never seen again, at least in China. Twenty years later, Ren Hao, a Taiwanese businessman, hires missing-persons investigator Dan Sharp to find his sister, after he sees an online photo of a woman in a bakery in Canada whom he believes is Ling. The case becomes complicated when what began as a simple missing persons case quickly expands to international intrigue. A key person of interest in the case turns up dead, and Dan discovers that a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent is following him. Although Round's series has been praised for its character development, in this book, Dan's carefully crafted personal story line overshadows the mystery. It isn't until a major twist presents itself that readers are reminded this is not just a novel about Dan, but also a mystery about a missing woman.

October 24, 2011
In this skillfully told first in a new series from Canadian author Round (Vanished in Vallarta), Dan Sharp, a Toronto missing persons investigator and gay single father, is thrilled to be invited to a wedding in Prince Edward County. Thom Killingworth, an old friend of Dan’s commitment-phobic lover, Bill, is marrying his mail-order “bride,” Sebastiano Ballancourt, on the family yacht. But first Dan must look into the disappearance of a teenage boy. As he hits the haunts of runaway teens, Dan is reminded of his own dark youth and vows to keep his 14-year-old son, Ked, from such pain and misery. Dan’s hopes for a romantic weekend with Bill are dashed as prewedding jitters between Thom and Sebastiano turn into high tension. The fatal fall of Sebastiano’s sister off the yacht soon looks much more like murder than an accident. Round draws readers deep into Dan’s physical and psychological worlds, balancing his protagonist’s faults with his gifts as an investigator and father.

December 1, 2014

Dan Sharp is a Toronto private investigator specializing in missing persons. His latest client is a Chinese national searching for his sister who disappeared 20 years ago during the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Ren Hao is rich, beautiful, attracted to Dan, and not entirely what he seems. Dan takes the case even though he knows it's a mistake to mix business with pleasure. The search is complicated by connections to another case involving the runaway teen daughter of a Toronto police officer. Soon Dan is in over his head, with a possible diplomatic situation on his hands. VERDICT Round's latest mystery is well told, and the reader isn't sure of everyone's motivations until the very end. Dan himself is an appealing character, struggling to parent his teenage son, pay the bills, and manage his PTSD, while not yet giving up on love. His friend Donny and the gay Toronto milieu are exquisitely drawn, while the incorporation of Tiananmen Square echoes today's climate of political uncertainty without getting heavy-handed. A solid addition to this Lambda Award-winning PI series (Pumpkin Eater).--Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

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