The Hollow Woman

When his wife and retarded 30-year-old son are kidnapped, a wealthy Toronto industrialist unhesitatingly pays the huge ransom, but their horribly burned bodies are discovered a few days later. This sets John Kenneth Galbraith Jantarro, the one-armed detective the wealthy indus trialist had hired to find his missing fam ily, to wandering through Toronto searching for their murderers. ""Wander ing'' because, for much of the novel, Jan tarro is recovering from a severe concus sion suffered during his investigations and must strain to piece together what he knows and remembers. Jantarro seems to be a detective past his prime who makes admittedly stupid moves and does not think things through. In fact, neither the police nor Jantarro are terribly enthusias tic about his involvement in the case. ``Wandering'' is also, unfortunately, a de scription of the narrative. This first novel has at least two mysteries to solve, and due to narrator Jantarro's warped sense of time and misgivings about the entire af fair, the reader is kept at a distance. This is a pity because the story is a very interest ing one, and Jantarro a likeable protago nist. (February