Fall from Grace: L.R. Wright

 

The Prologue opens in Spring 1980. Several friends are attending the high school graduation of Bobby Ransome, a young man who was graduating several years late due to problems in his earlier years. The second part of the prologue takes place ten years later, in the summer of 1990, when Bobby has returned from several years in prison for dealing drugs. Bobby joins his ex-wife, Wanda, and her family for dinner, much to the dismay of her current husband, Warren. Bobby's return has caused some excitement and some dismay around the small town of Sechelt. 

A few weeks later, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Karl Alberg is out sailing with his lover Cassandra when they see the body of a man on the beach. It turns out that he had fallen from a cliff above. The dead man was Steven Grayson, who grew up in Sechelt but has been living in Vancouver for the last ten years. 

The story is told from multiple perspectives (Karl Alberg's, Cassandra's, the various members of the community that are affected by the death and by Bobby's return). At the same time that Cassandra and Karl are continuing to figure out their relationship, one of Karl's daughters is visiting for the summer and working part-time for the local newspaper. And Karl is dealing with the fact that his ex-wife is getting married again.

My thoughts:

As usual, the characters in this story are very well-drawn. This is the fourth book in the Karl Alberg series and I have found most of the books to be more of a character study than a mystery. And I like them that way.

The setting and the atmosphere are lovely. Sechelt is a real-life seaside community on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, northwest of Vancouver. As described below...

   On the Sunshine Coast that year, summertime was long and hot and dusty, and the world smelled of raspberries and roses.

   For weeks the sky remained utterly clear, and the air was hot and still.

   The waters that lapped at the western shoreline were such a deep blue they looked as if they might stain the skin. The nearer islands near the Strait of Georgia were etched fine and clear, every tree and every rock sharp-edged; the islands somewhat farther away were soft dark shapes against the sky; the most distant islands were purple shadows in the far-reaching sea.

I continue to enjoy this series and I am surprised each time at the themes the author covers and the different approaches she takes to each novel.

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Publisher: Felony & Mayhem, 2010. Orig. pub. 1991.
Length:  275 pages
Format:  Trade paperback
Series:   Karl Alberg #4 
Setting:  Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada
Genre:   Mystery, Police Procedural

A Great Reckoning: Louise Penny

Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series is now up to 19 books, with the latest book due to be published October 29, 2024. When I began reading the series, it was primarily a police procedural series, with Gamache as a Chief Inspector of the Surêté du Québec. 

This book is the 12th in the series, and in a previous book in the series, Gamache left his position as head of homicide. At least two of the books after that focus on mysteries not related to Gamache's role as a policeman. But both he and his wife knew that he would someday look for a new career and return to active work. At the beginning of this story, Gamache has made that decision and accepted an offer to become the head of the Sûreté Academy. In the past, the Sûreté had become filled with corrupt officials and the Academy still shows the results of that influence. Gamache hopes to correct that, but he knows it will take time.

Thus this book is primarily set at the Sûreté Academy, and that is an interesting setting. But Armand and his wife Reine-Marie now live in Three Pines, so a good amount of time is also spent there. I like the books no matter where they are set, but when they are in Three Pines, it means that some of the interesting characters who live there will be featured: Ruth, Clara, Olivier and Gabriel, and Myrna at the bookstore.

Not long after Gamache comes to the Academy in his new position, an instructor at the Academy is killed. And Gamache is one of the suspects, although no one believes that it could be him. Clearly Gamache cannot run the investigation of the crime, but he is involved in the investigation as much as possible. 

There are several smaller mysteries in this story. One is why Gamache decided to approve Amelia Choquet for admission to the academy. She is a misfit, has been in trouble with the law and has obvious tattoos and piercings. He obviously feels some connection to her. 

There is another mystery around an old map found in the walls of Olivier and Gabriel's bistro in Three Pines. It turns out to be an orienteering map; some cadets from the Academy and the residents of Three Pines work together to figure out its origins.

At this point in the series, I have a hard time reviewing the books because going into much detail can spoil plot points of earlier books in the series. I also think that reading the books in order is important because some of characters just seem needlessly quirky and irritating without know some of their background.

The mysteries in this series are always rewarding. Usually very complex and sometimes circuitous and perplexing, they keep me guessing. I never even came close to suspecting the perpetrator in this book.

Louise Penny is very good at creating characters we want to read about. She also continues to develop the characters, both the main characters and the continuing secondary characters in Three Pines. It is hard to look back and compare all the books, but I think this is my favorite book so far. 

See other reviews at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan and Mysteries in Paradise.

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Publisher:   Minotaur Books, 2016 
Length:      386 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Armand Gamache, #12
Setting:      Quebec, Canada
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:      I purchased this book.

Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories: Alexandra Pratt

  

Cath at Read-Warbler recommended Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories to me. The subtitle of the book is "A Woman's Journey into the Heart of Labrador." Alexandra Pratt tells her story of an ambitious trip on a river that not many have traveled.

I purchased this book in July 2020, during the pandemic. Like many of the books I bought that year, I had plans to read the book soon but put it on a shelf and it did not surface again until four years later when I decided to participate in the Canadian Reading Challenge again. 

I know very little about Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada; it is made up of the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador. Per Wikipedia, Labrador "constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its population. It is separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle." Reading Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories was a small step towards understanding more about Labrador, and I do think it gave a better picture of that area. But I have a long way to go.

In 1903 two men, Leonidas Hubbard and Dillon Wallace, attempted to travel 600 miles through the interior of Labrador with a native guide, George Elson. None of them made it to their destination; Hubbard died but Wallace and Elson survived, although Wallace suffered from frostbite and gangrene. Two years later, Mina Hubbard, Leonidas's wife, and Dillon Wallace went on separate expeditions to try to accomplish the original goal of reaching Ungava Bay at the mouth of the George River. Both Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace succeeded but they took different routes and Wallace took 60 days longer to complete the trip.

In 1997, Alexandra Pratt read excerpts of Mina Hubbard's diary in an issue of National Geographic magazine and was inspired to attempt to recreate the trip. In this book, Pratt describes the harrowing canoe trip that she and her Innu guide took down some of the same rivers that Mina traveled. Not only did Pratt have to prepare physically to be able to survive such a demanding trip, she spent a lot of time up front acquiring funding and gathering information about supplies and support that such a trip would require.  

In the intervening years between Mina's expedition and Pratt's trip, there had been changes to the terrain along the rivers. The Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant was constructed which caused the water level to be lowered in the rivers. It seemed to me that this had both positive and negative impacts on Pratt's trip compared to Mina's.

The team that Mina Hubbard took had two canoes and four native guides, so that Mina had to bear less of the physical burden of rowing the huge canoes that they used. Pratt's trip involved only two persons, herself and Jean Pierre Ashini, thus there was no backup if either of them was injured. Once I realized how many dangers they could encounter along the way, it seemed to be a terrifying trip to attempt. 

The details of ending the day by setting up camp on the riverbank, building a shelter, and preparing food were impressive as was the stamina and determination necessary to keep paddling the canoe steadily day after day. When they were in camp at night, Pratt's guide, Jean Pierre Ashini, would tell her stories about his life and experiences. This was one of the most interesting parts for me. He was forty when they went on this expedition. He had lived almost thirty years of his life living in the traditional ways as a hunter. He told of the ways the Innu have had to change just within his lifetime and the effect on their culture. 

Pratt tells the story of her adventures and struggles very well, and describes the beauty of the landscape along their route. She mingles descriptions of Mina Hubbard's original trip with her own, and that added depth to the story. This is a fascinating book and I learned a lot about Labrador, but I would have liked to have maps and more photos to help me visualize the trip. I read the paperback edition and the original hardback had a map on the end papers.  

A Cast of Falcons: Steve Burrows

A Cast of Falcons is the third book in the Birder Murder Mystery series by Steve Burrows. The author is Canadian and this is the first book I have read for the Canadian Reading Challenge. In this case, the books are set in the UK but the main character is from Canada.

From the description at the Simon & Schuster website:

A man falls to his death from a cliff face in western Scotland. From a distance, another man watches. He approaches the body, tucks a book into the dead man’s pocket, and leaves. 

When the Scottish police show visiting Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune the book, he recognizes it as a call for help. But he also knows that answering that call could destroy the life he and his girlfriend Lindy have built for themselves in the village of Saltmarsh, in north Norfolk. 

Back in Saltmarsh, the brutal murder of a researcher involved in a local climate change project has everyone looking at the man’s controversial studies as a motive.

My thoughts:

Domenic Jejeune does not even like being a DCI, he would rather be focusing on birdwatching. But he is very good at his job and he had made a name for himself in his previous job in London. In the first book in this series, he was newly appointed to the police department in the small Norfolk town of Saltmarsh, located in the heart of Britain’s premier birding country. In this book, Jejeune is more comfortably settled into his job and his team of detectives, but the return of someone from his past threatens to upset the equilibrium in his work and home life.

I have always enjoyed this series for the bird watching tidbits and the setting. The mystery plots have been secondary for me. However, here the plot is related to climate change and environmental issues and is very well done.

Dominic is introspective or oblivious at times, off in his own world, and this characteristic causes problems in both his work and at home. Sometimes I find that behavior irritating, but it makes him more human too. I also like the secondary characters in this series and how they develop over time. 

This is one of two mystery series that I am reading primarily because of the inclusion of birdwatching and the depictions of the coastal areas where the birds thrive. I would caution however that some reviewers felt that birding was too much of a presence in the plot of this series. The other series that features birdwatching is William Shaw's DS Alexandra Cupidi Series.

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Publisher:   Point Blank, 2018 (orig. pub. 2016)
Length:       384 pages
Format:       Trade paperback
Series:        Birder Murder Mysteries, #3
Setting:       England & Scotland
Genre:        Police procedural
Source:       I purchased this book.

18th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 

The Canadian Book Challenge was started in 2007 by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set blog (no longer available?). Now the challenge is hosted by Shonna at Canadian Bookworm. Between 2012, when I started blogging, and 2022, I participated in five Canadian Reading Challenges; now I am back for my sixth attempt.

The goal is to read and review 13 or more Canadian books in a one year span: from Canada Day, July 1st, 2024, to Canada Day eve, June 30th, 2025. Reviews posted online are required. (That is the hard part for me.)

What constitutes a Canadian book?

For this challenge, Canadian books are books written by Canadian authors (by birth or immigration) or about Canadians. The books can include any genre or form (picture books, poetry, novels, non-fiction, plays, anthologies, graphic novels, cookbooks, etc).

See the signup post for more information. 

What will I read?

I am currently reading a book for this challenge, A Cast of Falcons by Steve Burrows. Steve Burrows is a Canadian author but the books are set in the UK. 

Other books I plan to read are:

• Kelley Armstrong – The Poisoner's Ring: A Rip Through Time Novel
• Anthony Bidulka – Flight of Aquavit
• Gail Bowen – Verdict in Blood
• Louise Penny  –  A Great Reckoning
• Alexandra Pratt – Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories
• Robin Spano – Dead Politician Society
• Michael van Rooy – An Ordinary Decent Criminal
• L. R. Wright – Fall From Grace 
• Iona Whishaw – Death In A Darkening Mist

Other Canadian authors I have on my shelves (or on the Kindle) are:

• Vicky Delany
• J. Robert Janes
• Maureen Jennings
• Dietrich Kalteis
• Thomas King
• Emily St. John Mandel
• Margaret Millar
• Anna Porter
• Sam Wiebe
• Eric Wright

Greenwood: Michael Christie

My latest read was Greenwood by Michael Christie, a Canadian author. It is a multigenerational family story with a focus on nature and ecology, especially trees. It starts in a dystopian future in 2038 but soon travels back to follow the previous generations of the Greenwood family.

In 2038, Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood, is a dendrologist (a botanist who specializes in trees) but is working in a low paid job as a tour guide. At that point in time, the earth is plagued with dust storms, caused by the Great Withering, a wave of fungal blights and insect infestations that destroyed most of the trees. Jake is employed by a park with one of the world's last remaining forests (on an island off the coast of British Columbia). The story then goes back to 2008 and Liam Greenwood, Jake's father, a carpenter. Jake and Liam had never met. Next the story moves to 1974 and Willow Greenwood, Liam's mother. She is an environmental activist, protesting against the destruction of forests. 

Willow's father, Harris Greenwood, is a wealthy man who made his fortune cutting down forests for wood for many purposes. A large part of the story focuses on Everett Greenwood, Harris's brother, who rescues an abandoned baby and makes his way back to his brother, after many years of separation.  

 

I found this to be a wonderful if strange book. There were so many characters that at times I felt like I did not get to know some of them very well, but I became emotionally involved in the outcomes of their actions and the crucial moments of their lives, and I cared a lot about them. Some of the important characters outside of the family were very well defined, especially Harvey Bennett Lomax, who is following Everett as he travels across Canada with the baby, and Temple Van Horne, a female farm owner that Everett meets along the way. This book gives a great picture of many areas in Canada during the time period covered.

The story is mostly told in present tense. I did not even notice that until I was at least 100 pages into the book, so it seems that I am adapting to reading books written in present tense. 

This book was nominated for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada in 2020, and it won. But I have yet to figure out why it was considered crime fiction. There are crimes that take place, and mysteries that run through the story, but it is not like any other crime fiction I have read. It is a great read in any case.

One caution: More than one reviewer noted that the beginning and end of the book, set in 2038 and featuring Jake Greenwood, were much less compelling than the much larger middle sections covering 1908 to 2008. I agree, but I only mention that because some people might stop reading the book based on the first section, and the rest of the book has so much to offer. 

I first heard about Greenwood at Bill Selnes' blog, Mysteries and More in Saskatchewan. Also see this post on his email exchange with the author.

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Publisher:  Hogarth, 2019 
Length:      501 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Setting:      Canada (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and more)
Genre:        General Fiction
Source:      On my TBR piles since 2020.

Mindful of Murder: Susan Juby

 From the flyleaf of the book:

Meet Helen Thorpe. She’s smart, preternaturally calm, deeply insightful and a freshly trained butler. On the day she is supposed to start her career as an unusually equanimous domestic professional serving one of the wealthiest families in the world, she is called back to a spiritual retreat where she used to work, the Yatra Institute, on one of British Columbia’s gulf islands. The owner of the lodge, Helen’s former employer Edna, has died while on a three-month silent self-retreat, leaving Helen instructions to settle her affairs.

Per Edna's lawyers, Helen's role is to choose the next person to run the Yatra Institute. The candidates are four of Edna's relatives, two great-nephews and two great-nieces. Helen has been given criteria to judge them for this job, based on how they succeed in three courses at the institute: flower arranging, Devi dance, and meditation classes. Two of Helen's classmates in her butler training volunteer to join Helen at the Yatra Institute, to help her set up the courses and care for the four guests.

Three of the cousins that are being evaluated come from a privileged background, and resent being in the situation of being judged. The fourth cousin was discovered at the last minute by the lawyers and is unknown to the rest of the family. She is very unusual, but also likable, and more amenable to being tested. None of the relatives know how they will be judged or what they will get out of the "test" if they succeed.

Meanwhile, the police have determined that Edna committed suicide; Helen is surprised but she knows that this is a possible explanation. Later Helen receives new information, and begins to believe that Edna was murdered. This complicates her main mission, which is to complete the training and choose a person to take over the Institute. 

MY THOUGHTS

I like books by Canadian authors, and especially if the setting is in Canada. I discovered this book  at Bill Selnes' blog, Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan. The premise of the book appealed to me instantly. In addition to featuring men and women trained to be butlers, it also had a theme of mindfulness and presence in the moment.

This sounds like an unusual mystery and it is. I like mysteries with unique sleuths and a different approach. The Prologue describes Edna's death and the reader knows it is murder. However it takes others, including law enforcement officials, quite a while to figure this out. Helen has no experience at investigating a death, and doesn't really want to, but no one else is willing to do it. 

This is a light story, sort of a cozy, with a lovely setting. Some of the characters are charming and likable; others (most of Edna's relatives) are extremely unlikable, demanding and entitled. All of the characters, including the class instructors and others on the island, are interesting, each with their own approach to life. It was a lot of fun to read. The references to Buddhist beliefs and mindfulness in the story were an extra bonus for me.

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Publisher:  HarperCollins, 2022.
Length:      448 pages
Format:      Trade Paper
Setting:      British Columbia, Canada
Genre:       Mystery
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Short Story Wednesday: More Stories from Alice Munro

 

Back in November 2022 I read the first eight stories in Dear Life, a short story collection by Alice Munro. This week I read the remaining six stories. Overall I was very pleased with my first experience with reading stories by Alice Munro. I am not sure this collection was the best choice for a novice reader of Munro's stories, since it is a later collection, but there were some very good stories in the book. 

Following are my thoughts on the last six stories in the collection:

"In Sight of the Lake" and "Dolly" are both about elderly women and on the sad side. Since I am also elderly it wasn't pleasant reading. But both were very good stories. 

In "In Sight of the Lake," Nancy has an appointment with a doctor to discuss her "mind problem." She has to drive to a town nearby to find the doctor's office which she has never visited before. She gets lost and upset along the way. The ending surprised me. 

The second story I read, "Dolly," was less straightforward. An older couple, not married but living together, are planning their deaths; he is 83, she is 71. The woman narrates the story. The man decides not to go ahead with the plan because the woman is much younger. Sometime after that, the couple meet a female friend from his past. The man, who is a poet, even wrote a poem about her. The narrator feels threatened by this experience. The end of this story is very poignant.

The last four works in the book are described by the author as "not quite stories." They are somewhat, but not entirely, autobiographical. 

• "The Eye" goes back to Munro's childhood, and is about her relationship with her mother. 
• "Night" describes a bout with appendicitis and the aftermath, and is about her relationship with her father. It is very touching. 
• In "Voices," she goes with her mother to a dance at a neighbor's house. A prostitute is at the dance, and her mother is upset by this and they leave soon after they arrive. My least favorite story in this group.
• "Dear Life" covers a lot of ground, focusing on her father's various occupations and how they affected her life and her mother's gradual deterioration from Parkinson's disease.

With the exception of "Voices," I liked all of those, although I don't enjoy reading about unhappy childhoods, and that is what she seemed to be describing.

My post on the first eight stories in the collection is here. I read this book for the Canadian Reading Challenge. The author is Canadian and her stories often are set there.

"In Sight of the Lake" is available online on The Nobel Prize site. It isn't a very long story so it is easy to read online. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro for "master of the contemporary short story."

The Maid: Nita Prose

 

Excerpts from the dust jacket of my copy:

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. 

...

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. 

 

Molly Gray tells the story from her point of view. We can tell from her narration that she doesn't see life like the average person. She loves her work. Because she lacks in social skills and misinterprets some actions of those she works with, she is sometimes shunned or ridiculed. Others see her basic kindness and like working with her. And some people she knows use her. It took a while for me to pick up on these things, because Molly is pretty optimistic about life and sees the best in most people. She knows that not everyone accepts her as she is, but she has learned to live with it.

It gradually becomes apparent that many things Molly has done to "help" people have gotten her involved in some illegal activities, which complicates the situation when Charles Black is killed and Molly seems to be involved. She had become friends with his much younger wife, and often spent time talking to her, which also implicates her.

My Thoughts

I liked the setting in a hotel, and I had been wanting to read more books with protagonists that did not fit in, like Convenience Store Woman and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. All three books are very different, and the protagonists are too, and I liked all three of them.

Another fun element of the novel was that Molly and her grandmother watched Columbo (TV series with Peter Falk) together and had watched the episodes over and over. Thus Molly compares this case and what is happening to her with various Columbo episodes. That resonated for me because I am a big fan of that show too.

The book was very suspenseful, even though the plot is basically uncomplicated. I liked the ending; I found it satisfying. However there are a lot of readers who have had the opposite reaction, so I hesitate to recommend it.

Nita Prose is a Canadian author. Although the setting of this book is not clear, I am assuming it is set in a large hotel in a large city in Canada. 

Please see Constance's review of The Maid at Staircase Wit.

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Publisher:  Ballantine Books, 2022.
Length:     304 pages
Format:     Hardcover
Setting:     Canada
Genre:      Mystery
Source:    I purchased this book.

A Killer in King's Cove: Iona Whishaw

 

A Killer in King's Cove is a historical mystery set in British Columbia, Canada right after World War II. The heroine, Lane Winslow, has just moved to Canada from the UK, following World War II, and lives in a small town of mostly older people. The only younger people in the area are a couple from New York who have recently moved there with their two young children. After Lane has settled down in King's Cove, a stranger is found dead in the creek that feeds water to her property. Eventually the death is determined to be murder and Lane Winslow appears to have a connection to this man.

In addition to a historical mystery, the story had elements of espionage and romance mixed in. The espionage comes into it because Lane was a courier who took messages into France during War War II. The anxiety and stress of that assignment and the loss of a lover during the war motivated her to move to Canada in an effort to forget about the war. The romance is very low key, and doesn't get in the way of the mystery plot.

Lane has purchased a home with some land and has ambitions to be a writer; she concentrates on poetry during this book. Although the small town she lives in is somewhat isolated, and provides a limited number of suspects, I did get all the characters confused. Most of the townspeople had been in the town since before World War I and some of the men had gone overseas and fought in the war. Others did not return. For once, a character list at the front of the book would have been useful, although usually I don't find those very helpful.

I like that the main character is a strong woman who will stand up for herself. The two policemen who investigate the crime are from a nearby town, Nelson. Inspector Darling and Constable Ames have a great relationship and I especially enjoyed the parts of the story where they were featured.

The setting in British Columbia was also a plus, and this book illustrated the ways that Canada was affected by both World War I and World War II. 

A Killer in King's Cove was the first in a series. There are now nine books in the series and another book due in 2023, so it seems to be going well. I am interested in where the next book will take Lane Winslow.

About the author, from her website:

Iona Whishaw was born in Kimberley BC, but grew up in a number of different places, including a small community on Kootenay Lake, as well as Mexico and Central America, and the US because of her father’s geological work. She took a degree in history and education from Antioch College, and subsequent degrees in Writing at UBC and pedagogy at Simon Fraser University.  

She is married, has one son and two grandsons, and lives in Vancouver with her artist husband, Terry Miller.

See also these reviews at Staircase Wit and Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan.

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Publisher:   Torchwood Books, 2016
Length:      432 pages
Format:      Trade Paper
Series:       Lane Winslow #1
Setting:      British Columbia, Canada
Genre:       Historical Mystery
Source:     Purchased in 2020.

The Long Way Home: Louise Penny

This is the 10th book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. At this point in the series, I have a hard time reviewing the books because going into much detail can spoil plot points of earlier books in the series. So if this review sounds vague in some areas, it was probably intentional.

Three Pines, a fictional town in Quebec, Canada, is the focal point for many of the books in this series. Gamache has retired to Three Pines. He and his wife, Reine-Marie, have purchased a home and acquired a dog and are living a peaceful, happy life. And yet, even though Gamache is not seeking more mysteries or investigations in his quiet life, one comes to him. Clara, a friend in Three Pines, wants him to find her husband. 

Clara and her husband Peter agreed on a one year separation, and after one year apart, they planned to meet at their home in Three Pines and have a dinner together  and decide what to do next. Peter did not show up for the dinner and she has been unable to locate him. She wants help from Gamache. So in effect this is a missing persons case. It should be simple enough but it doesn't turn out that way.

Gamache gets help from Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his former colleague. They keep running into brick walls when they try to find out where Peter has been and what he has been doing. Peter is the son of a wealthy family, but it is a very dysfunctional family, and Gamache gets no help in that area. 

Gamache does spend a good amount of time in other parts of Canada in this book, accompanied by Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his former colleague, and Clara and her friend Myrna Landers. At one point even Ruth Zardo, one of the strangest inhabitants of Three Pines, accompanies them. Clara and Peter are both talented, well-known artists; they met at the art school they went to. Thus art and its impact on people is a major theme in this book. 

It took me a long time to like this series. It was not until I read the 5th and 6th books, The Brutal Telling and Bury Your Dead, in April of 2020, that I became a confirmed fan. Since then I have loved all of the books. The writing grabs me and won't let me go, and I feel immersed in the story as I read it. 

I like the close-knit group of friends in Three Pines. When I first started the series I thought that they were all just quirky and sometimes obnoxious; now I enjoy reading about them. And the mysteries are always rewarding. Usually very complex and sometimes circuitous and perplexing, they keep me guessing.  

I have to repeat what many other reviewers say about this book. Don't start with this one; read the series from the beginning in order. Get to know the characters. Otherwise the plot of this one won't have as much impact.

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Publisher:   Minotaur Books, 2015 (orig. publ. 2014)
Length:      368 pages
Format:      Trade paper
Series:        Inspector Gamache, #10
Setting:      Canada
Genre:        Mystery
Source:      I purchased this book.

Dead in the Water: Ted Wood

Reid Bennett is not just the Chief of Police in Murphy's Harbour, a small resort town in Muskoka, Ontario. He is the ONLY policeman in town. There is a man in the office who answers the phones, but he is not a qualified to do police work. 

Bennett ended up in Murphy's Harbour because he was hounded out of his previous job in the Toronto police due to his handling of an attempted rape. As he puts it: "Nothing violent happens here." But when a corpse is found floating in the lake, Bennett's job gets very complicated and it turns out that the small town is not the haven that he thought it would be.

This is a very different police procedural. The case becomes very complicated, and the minuscule police presence in Murphy's Harbour is not meant to handle cases like this. It requires ingenuity for Reid to deal with the workload and the pursuit of the criminals basically alone. He does have his faithful dog Sam, a smart, always loyal German shepherd, by his side.

What did I like?

• The story is told in first person narration by Bennett, and I liked the character and the narration.
• Sam the dog is a fantastic character.
• The Canadian setting, in a small town on the water, and a mix of characters, locals and tourists.
• The story is not predictable, and moves at a fast pace, with plenty of surprises, especially at the end.

Dead in the Water, published in 1983, is the first book in a ten book crime fiction series starring Reid Bennett. It is a very short novel at 142 pages. The story may have a bit too much violence for me, but I will see how future books pan out.

Check out other more detailed reviews at Kevin's Corner and Paul Bishop's blog. 

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Publisher:   Open Road Media, 2014 (orig. publ. 1983)
Length:       142 pages
Format:      Trade Paperback

Series:        Reid Bennett, #1
Setting:      Canada
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:      On my TBR pile since 2020.

16th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

The Canadian Book Challenge was started in 2007 by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set and hosted by him for its first 10 years. Now the challenge is hosted by Shonna at Canadian Bookworm. Between 2012, when I started blogging, and 2020, I participated in four Canadian Reading Challenges; now I am back for my fifth attempt.

The goal is to read and review 13 or more Canadian books in a one year span: from Canada Day, July 1st, 2022, to Canada Day eve, June 30th, 2023. Reviews posted online are required. That is the hard part for me.

What constitutes a Canadian book?

Canadian books can include any genre or form (picture books, poetry, novels, non-fiction, plays, anthologies, graphic novels, cookbooks, etc). They can be written by Canadian authors (by birth or immigration) or about Canadians.

See the FAQ sheet for more information. 

What will I read?

I have already read one book for this challenge, Dead in the Water by Ted Woods, which I plan to review soon. I am currently reading The English Wife by Adrienne Chinn.

Other books I plan to read are:

• Kelley Armstrong – A Darkness Absolute
• Louise Penny  – The Long Way Home
• Stef Penney – The Tenderness of Wolves
• Alexandra Pratt – Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories
• Robin Spano – Dead Politician Society
• Michael van Rooy – An Ordinary Decent Criminal
• L. R. Wright – Fall From Grace 
• Iona Whishaw – A Killer in King's Cove

Other Canadian authors I have on my shelves are:

• Vicky Delany
• J. Robert Janes
• Maureen Jennings
• Dietrich Kalteis
• Margaret Millar
• Sam Wiebe
• Eric Wright