Fire, Fog and Water: A Sgt. Windflower Mystery

Canadian author Mike Martin, born in Newfoundland, is a well known freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand. His books include Change the Things You Can: Dealing with Difficult People as well as his ongoing series The Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series of which FIRE, FOG AND WATER is Book 8. He now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario.For those for whom this is the first exposure to the series, the Sgt. Winston Windflower mystery series shares tales about a Mountie who finds himself with a new family and a new life in tiny Grand Bank, Newfoundland. Many of the characters from the first volume remain and most assuredly the setting of the dramas remains a place we learn to know well, but Mike has that uncanny ability to open a new story with enough mix of entertainment and magnetizing hints of the mystery to come to capture the attention and imagination. For example, in the first paragraphs we read, ‘Sergeant Winston Windflower was not happy. That was unusual. Anybody who knew Windflower would say he was almost always happy. Today anyone who saw him could tell he was certainly not happy. The funny thing is, if someone dared to ask him why he was so unhappy, he wouldn’t have been able to say because even he didn’t know.’ And with that congenial opening the fine little mystery enters.Mike summarizes the plot in his synopsis: ‘Sgt. Windflower has more than a few mysteries on his hands. He suspects that three recent cases might be connected, but how? Sgt Windflower tries to solve the cases and still finds a way to enjoy friends, food and family in beautiful Grand Bank, Newfoundland.’ New characters as well as old friends combine to make this story a pleasure to read.This is one finely written mystery, complete with all the aspects of mature writing that allow the description to be ‘a cozy mystery’. It has it all. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, November 19

Fire, Fog and Water: Mike Martin (Sgt. Windflower Mysteries Book 8) by Mike Martin is another installment in this cozy mystery series. If you are looking for an atmospheric, personality driven, and compelling mystery, look no further. The book starts out with Windflower in a foul mood as he gets to his office. Later, when Windflower finds a body wrapped up in a carpet, his bad day gets even worse. This is great writing, with good dialogue between the characters, and a setting that can't be beat on the east coast of Canada. The plot moves forward at a steady pace, and the scenes coalesce together quite well. While it may be helpful to have read some of the previous novels in this series, this book can easily stand alone. Windflower himself is a great main character, with flaws that make him very human. Hard to put this one down, this is highly recommended for a cozy and intriguing mystery.

I love the fact that this series takes place in Canada. If you get out a map you can actually follow from one place to another. The relationships between the characters develops nicely as you read the series. I want to go to the place that sells the bread. It is so nice to read books that have no swearing and no detailed sex.

As with no many Newfoundlanders this author left home to make a living but writes about home, specifically, the Burin Peninsula. He lives in Ottawa.This is a Winston Windflower mystery. An RCMP officer who is a native Canadian. As this outing begins it is he who literally stumbles across the body while walking his collie, Lady.We hear a lot about his infant daughter and pet collie and cat; along with family life. The locals talk Newfie dialect and eat fried cod with scuncheons. Native dream interpretation figures as well.The officers suffer from a bad superior but in the end right prevails.

Picturesque is how I would describe the latest installment of the Sgt. Windflower mystery novels by Mark Martin. The 8th book I the installment keeps us right in line with the other mysteries, on the eastern coast of Canada. Sgt. Windflower is having a bad day when he discovers a body rolled in a carpet – what a cliché, but he has yet to figure out that this is only the beginning of a mystery that will lead him on a merry chase of clue after clue until he can apprehend the culprit all the while trying to enjoy as much food as he can.Witty dialogue and enchanting descriptions of the coastline, this book was a wonderful read, it was lighthearted and yet had substance and the characters were smart, not dolts stumbling about. Spelling or syntax errors were nonexistent, and it shows that the writer is competent and loves his characters with the effortless writing here.

A crime spree in Grand Bank. Murders, drugs, arson and bombings all at the time. Evanchuk and Windflower file complaints about their superior from Marystown.

I have read all of the Sgt. Windflower series by Mike Martin. He just keep getting better! I enjoyed this book. Sgt. Windflower is an RCMP officer in small town Newfoundland. The books refer to the distinctive culture, cuisine and the people of outport Newfoundland. But the crimes are real and the idyllic small towns of the area are being infected with drugs, murder and other crimes that call for Sgt. Windflower and his team to face.The stories are progressive so it's best to read them in order. Highly recommended!

I love the characters n this book, and the crimes are realistic and not sensationalized. It is an easy read, and most enjoyable.

Very good story! I enjoyed it very very much. If this isn’t enough that’s just too bad. Oh for the love of god this is just too stupid!

Well defined characters.Excellent setting of Newfoundland, CanadaWell constructed mystery.

I have read a couple of books in this series and have not been too impressed by them and have said I wouldn’t read any more in the series but this book is entered in the 2020 Arthur Ellis awards and I got it for the right price so I thought I’d give the author another try. However once again I didn’t find it a great read and I think this is strike 3 for this series. This is not at all a bad book and I know lots of readers like it and the series and I didn’t have to force myself to finish it and thus the 3 stars but it just isn’t the type of mystery I like. I found this a bit of a slow read and to me it reads more like a family soap opera than a mystery. Too many repetitious details particularly every time Windflower does anything with “joy of his life, little Amelia Louise.” None of the plot lines really reach a solid ending but every branch of the Mounties involved are super good at passing the buck and handing off all their difficult cases to some other branch or Police Service. I did like that Windflower practised more of his Native customs than in the earlier books I read but again too many repetitious details and I still really have no idea of what his dreams had to do with any of the plot lines. The only thing that might get me to read another of these is to finally get some resolution as to whatever Uncle Frank and Aunt Marie are doing with Windflower. And BTW I think Lady is the best and most interesting character in the book.