I’m a long time Port Moody resident who’s recently moved out to the Fraser Valley, but I’m coming back to launch my latest book, To Kill a King.
The easiest way to get to the launch is to park at the Port Moody Rec Centre. Walk past the rinks and down toward the sports field at the back. Before you get to the sports field, there’s a small bridge and a path. Walk down there and you will soon come to the Noon’s Creek Salmon Hatchery. Of course, if you’re in the mood for a beautiful walk you can come the other direction from the Inlet Trail.
This is an outside, socially distanced event, but please wear your mask and be safe.
In 2007, poet-author Gil Adamson (Gillian) published her award-winning debut novel, The Outlander. Thirteen years later, we are reading the sequel. It’s almost in real time.
The Outlander tells the story of nineteen-year-old Mary Boulton who kills her husband and flees into the Canadian Rockies pursued by her two brothers-in-law. There she meets several eccentric characters in an Alberta mining town, one of whom she falls in love with—William Moreland, the Ridgerunner. Adamson wondered what would happen if this couple had a child. They did, and thirteen years later we’re reading about the boy’s internal struggles in this touching coming-of-age story.
Jack Boulton is a twelve-year-old boy. His mother, Mary, died the previous fall. Jack got sick, and his father left him with a local nun so he could go back to his previous life of crime. Blowing up mines and robbing banks is ridgerunner senior’s forte. But William’s motives are heartfelt. He’s trying to make a slew of money so he and his boy can live somewhere peacefully. Plus, he’s trying to cope with his wife’s unexpected death. The only (well, maybe not the only) problem is, the nun, one Emelia Cload has decided that the boy is hers.
Jack is not enamored with this decision, and early in the story, he escapes his regimented captivity and heads home. The nun (which is what she is called most often) wants him back and puts up a wanted poster with a $2000 reward for his return. If that seems like odd behaviour for a nun, brace yourself. That’s only the beginning. The nun is an unexpected antagonist.
The boy learns to shoot, live alone, take a beating, fend for himself and, in short order, becomes a man. In fact, Jack becomes the Ridgerunner himself. The parallels between father and son are a theme of this story. They are both outlaws, on the run, and trying to survive in hostile terrain.
This is a rollicking literary adventure told in three parts. The horses, guns, and wild animals give it a western feel. At one point, Moreland spends three days treed by an old grizzly. It’s character-driven but there’s plenty of action, tension, suspense, and dropped bombs (which I won’t reveal.) It also has an historical Can Lit feel as it’s set in and around Banff and Lake Louise, formerly the town of Laggan. Since it’s 1917 when the story begins, there are references to The Great War—the working men of a prison camp feature in the plot.
Adamson’s lyrical prose and poetic descriptions immerse us in this rugged Western Canadian landscape. She is mad with details and rich with language. “Hair in horripilating waves.” Now, there’s a word. There are bits of Nakoda, a strange language spoken by Sampson Beaver the second, and interjections of folksy wisdom. “If you’re afraid of doing something son, you’re more or less obligated to do it.” Adamson comments that allusions to Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, and True Grit, among others pepper the book and are among her influences, along with “Western and noir movies, songs, and fairy tales.” I heard shades of Lonesome Dove and The Tenderness of Wolves myself. The haunting landscape of the wild places, of pioneers, of bygone days lends itself to lyrical prose.
In August, I reviewed Book 1 in The Daughters of Dark Root series. I liked the book so much, I threatened to buy the box set of four. Well, I did. And I just finished reading Book 2: The Magick of Dark Root.
This is Maggie Mae’s book. In book 1, Maggie came home to the small Oregon town of Dark Root to join her sisters in caring for their ailing mother. Sasha Shantay, the matriarch of this witchy clan, is aging fast. Now Maggie has officially left Michael, because of his affair with Leah, and is falling for Shane Doler, a handsome cowboy/restaurateur who has a few magick powers of his own. She’s also brought home another surprise.
The quest for a strong wand—hopefully from the Lightning Willow as was her mother’s—and the management of her power are focuses for Magdalene in this book. “The willow cannot only heal people, but extend their lives, indefinitely, perhaps” says Larinda. Though she’s one of the antagonists in this series and not to be trusted, Maggie wants to believe a lightning willow wand will bring her mother back from the dead.
Necromancy is one of the themes in this book. Birth and Life meander through this story in many guises. While Maggie is carrying new life, she discovers she has the power to take life. This deathtouch is something she believes she inherited from her powerful, rebellious father, Armand.
I’ll confess. This was one of the creepiest parts of this story and I had a hard time with it. One night, Eve and Maggie go out to a local bar to make some cash hustling pool. Eve (like her biblical man-wasting counterpart) is dressed in a “tight, black, knit number that sat low in the cleavage and high on the thigh.” She’s also wearing a dash of her mankiller scent. She targets a middle-aged man who’s sitting alone and pours on her charm. Then her pool hustle begins. “Last game. Winner takes all,” Eve says, promising more than cash. All the while, Maggie is watching and managing the shots with her witchcraft. The man, who is now “drunk on alcohol, drunk on desire” starts moving in on Eve and the women get frightened. When Eve tries to leave, he objects and comes after her. Aggressively. Triggered by her own bad experiences with men, Maggie charges at the man, her power running full throttle and kills him. Shades of Thelma and Louise?
“For every spell there was an anti-spell. For every power, an opposing power. If I had the deathtouch, then someone out there had the lifetouch.“
This is not what creeps me out. It’s when they resurrect him and he rises as this giant zombiesque man-baby that they have to care for while they figure things out, that I start feeling yucky. The creepiest part for me is that Maggie suddenly becomes his mother. She treats him like an infant and tells him she loves him. It’s like some strange rehearsal for when her own baby is born. Except he’s not her baby. He’s a creepy guy that would have raped Eve if he had the chance and now he’s not even a guy.
But that’s just me. See what you think.
What will eventually happen to the resurrected Leo? Read to find out.
There are three books left in this series. Will I keep reading? You bet.
