Mission Road

April 13, 2020
Edgar finalist Corbett’s hard-hitting third Frank Yakabuski mystery picks up where 2018’s Cape Diamond left off. The “$1.2 billion of uncut diamonds” stolen in Cape Diamond are now thought to be hidden around the town of Springfield, Ontario, where Jason McAllister, a postgraduate mathematics student from Syracuse University, has gone missing. A few days later, a map indicating the diamonds’ possible location shows up on the still missing McAllister’s Facebook page. This prompts “The Great Springfield Diamond Hunt,” as the local newspaper calls it. Hordes of amateur treasure hunters arrive on the scene, as do warring criminal gangs, a professional assassin, and a legendary robber whose exploits have been immortalized in a song. Yakabuski, a senior detective in the Springfield Regional Police Service, stands tall throughout as he investigates kidnapping, murder, extortion, and more. Corbett veers at times between too much repeated background information and not quite enough. Even those familiar with the earlier entries might wish they had a scorecard. Agent: Robert Lecker, Robert Lecker Agency (Canada).