Ottawa Citizen:
January 18, 2004
From Crime Scene
By Mike Gillespie

Also new on the shelves

In a scene of marital wretchedness played out over grilled salmon and a nice Caesar salad, Paulette, the perfect housewife, plots the murder of her cheating husband, Andy. How she plans the demise of this boorish, 51-year-old Don Juan, as he travels to post-Soviet Riga on business, is all part of the comedic stew Ottawa novelist Ilze Berzins cooks up for readers in her sixth murder mystery, Riga Blanca (Albert Street Press, or from the author — [email protected]; $24). Paulette’s life is driven by revenge — revenge for too many demeaning years of marriage, for Andy’s fling with a supposed Russian tramp (Valeria Atnikova) and for fathering a bastard child. But is Andy Laci, Ottawa’s Crown prosecutor, just being taken for a rube by a scheming Russian prosecutor? Follow Berzins for an entertaining romp to the Latvian capital where you’ll meet her eclectic cast of characters, each with their own life plan, including Valeria whose mantra, gleaned from a horoscope in an Ottawa newspaper, is simply: Go For It!