This is an incredible novel. Poetic. Prophetic. Powerful. I’m not even sure how it ended up on my Kindle; perhaps it was on a free books newsletter and I downloaded it based on the glorious front cover. I love watching jellyfish. They’ve always been my favourite tank at the Vancouver Aquarium. Of course, there they were captive jellyfish contained for our amusement and we, watching from the outside, felt safe.
Here, jellyfish are marauders and we are their amusement.
“The jellyfish rule the ocean now. With limited predators, warm oceans and over 700 million years of evolution, they’ve become sly at adapting to the elements.”
This impactful apocalyptic novel—the first in Jillian Webster’s The Forgotten Ones trilogy—begins in futuristic New Zealand, where the writer now lives. The book falls into that newish realm we call eco-fiction or eco-myth. The writing is poetic and literary; the plot, adventurous with enough romantic suspense to keep you up at night, and for those of us who love magic, Webster even adds a dash of the fantastical. Maia, the feisty twenty-year-old female protagonist, is something of a nature goddess. In this passage, reminiscent of the ancient Gaelic “Song of Amergin” Maia discovers her destiny and then must accept it, and wear it.
“You are the reincarnation of a living earth, long forsaken. You are her. You are the soul of the trees, the heartbeat of each crawling ant, the breath of every humming bee. You are the music of the babbling brook and the pulse of each undulating wave. You are the spotted clouds of deep red sunsets and every reflective crystal of white mountain tops. You are the delicate drop of rain and the crushing avalanche of ice.”
The tale begins with a prologue—a nightmare—in which a mother she cannot remember, beckons Maia to follow her destiny. This recurring dream precipitates Maia’s decision to leave the comfortable safety of the mountain haven her grandfather built for her, after he dies. Her choices? Live alone. Marry some old man from the North Island Community. Or follow her mother’s voice and set out to seek her destiny.
“Life as a whole tends to work like this; the most beautiful things in this world have been born from disaster.”
The philosophy is tribal. We’ve heard it before; yet we always forget. And the consequences of forgetting is a planet flooded due to melted poles, overrun with jellyfish. Powerless cities rot beneath the sea, and desperados run disparate communities. It can be triggering, given the state of Earth these days. Yet there is a glint of hope in this torpid sea of jellyfish. A rumoured Utopia —The Old Arctic Circle—The New World.
“Before The End, there was a lot of talk about this anomaly, this place on earth that for thousands of year had been covered in ice. A wasteland—no man’s land. Once the glaciers melted, there were these massive uninhabited pieces of earth at the very beginning stages of what they were like millions of years ago.”
Imagine it. A tropical paradise as yet pristine and unaffected by human greed. Wouldn’t you search for it? I would.
Be aware this book could trigger you. It will certainly make you think. When Maya dives off a pirated freighter into the sea off the west coast of California and lands in a wavering island of garbage, I almost stopped reading. It was too real, too much to dwell on. I know we’re dumping tons of plastic and garbage into the ocean daily. How long will it take before the garbage rises to the surface and becomes an island of nets, plastic, and death?
The best part for me was discovering that there is a book 2—The Burn of a Thousand Suns. I hope that people; at least, the “right” people hear the message Jillian Webster offers before it’s too late.
Griffiths’s latest Ruth Galloway archaeological crime mystery sends us forward in time as well as backward. She’s now Head of Archaeology at North Norfolk U and her daughter, Kate, is thirteen. DCI Nelson, Kate’s father, and the love of Ruth’s life, is still living with his wife and helping raise their three-year-old son (although his parentage is questionable if I remember correctly). But, that’s the kind of guy Nelson is. But hey, come on, don’t you think it’s time you lived your truth, Nelson?
There’s plenty here for readers who enjoy unravelling a murder mystery along with Nelson’s crack detective team, while delving into the lives of old familiars—Ruth & Nelson, Cathbad & Judy—and there’s a new archaeologist in town, David Brown, whose enthusiasm and connection with The Night Hawks make him suspect, and Ruth terribly annoyed.
The Night Hawks are a group of amateur archaeologists and metal detectorists, who wander at night searching for prize loot buried under England’s soil. They discover a Bronze Age hoard along with a three-thousand-year-old body on the beach, and nearby another body—a man recently deceased. Then they discover a bloody scene at a spooky farm house that appears to be a murder-suicide carried out by the husband, a scientist who’s not a very nice guy at all. Add to this soup, the legend of the Black Shuk, a giant black dog with red eyes that prowls the vicinity of Black Dog farm where the alleged murder-suicide occurred, and you’ve got an up-all-night-read brewing.
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One year, I’ll read this whole series from beginning to end again. I’d love to see this series come to television. Producers, please.
It’s been some time since I read an installment of the DreadfulWater Mysteries. Too long. The Red Power Murders (2017) was my first. With the latest Thomas King mystery about to launch, I decided to catch up with Obsidian, released 2020. Plus, I love the shiny black volcanic rock, so was enticed by the title. While reading Thumps DreadfulWater’s adventures, I could hear King’s voice narrating, and that got me thinking about his mocking comedy style, and where I first heard it.
Way back in 1997, King created CBC Radio’s Dead Dog Café, where he played straight man to Jasper Friendly Bear and Gracie Heavy Hand at the fictional town of Blossom, Alberta. I used to listen and laugh along with the fifteen-minute CBC episodes on the car radio while driving my daughter to taekwondo. If you’ve never heard Indigenous satire at its finest, you can catch episodes on youtube. I’d previously read Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water while attending Trent University’s Indigenous Studies program. The latter is a 1993 Trickster novel, nominated for the Governor General’s Award. I add this preamble because the DreadfulWater Mysteries echo the same wry, ironic tone that characterizes King’s writing while offering a classic who-done-it mystery that will appeal to all those who love crime novels.
Obsidian takes Thumps back six years to a tragic time when he was a deputy sheriff and his girlfriend, Anna, and her daughter, Callie, were killed by a serial killer on the Northern California Coast. It doesn’t get much worse than that. They never caught the guy, who killed eight other people during his killing spree. Perhaps that’s why Thumps has given up law enforcement to become a photographer—something that Thomas King does exceptionally well. Check out his photos here. DreadfulWater’s ancestry is Cherokee, as is King’s. I feel an alter-ego lurking here.
Thumps returns to Chinook, only to discover that the producer of a true-crime reality TV show who’s investigating “The Obsidian Murders” had come there to talk to him but been murdered. Moreover, Maslowe’s found with a piece of obsidian in her mouth—the trademark of the original serial killer. Is he now in Chinook or is this a copycat killer? Either way, the news leaves Thumps feeling both troubled and curious.
Naturally, there’s a café in Chinook populated by funny friends. The banter between Thumps, Cooley Small Elk, and Moses Blood is reminiscent of the characters at Dead Dog Café. The story is largely plot-driven and heavy in dialogue—humorous dialogue—which is no surprise since King is also a screenwriter. I’m surprised the Thumps DreadfulWater Mysteries haven’t been purchased for screen yet. With their Canadian/Indigenous humour they’d make a splash—think Schitt’s Creek merged with Blackstone.
Maslowe has left Thumps a name—Raymond Oaks—who, it turns out, was Anna’s husband before he was sent to prison for life (robbery-homicide) and released on a technicality just around the time of the killings. Thumps is enlisted by Sheriff Duke Hockney to help investigate the murder and joined by his slick deputy-friend, Leon Ranger.
Not long after, Thumps is approached by a strange trio of film producers—Mercer, Gerson, and Shipman—who’ve come to Chinook to make a cable movie based on the Obsidian murders. “People, it seemed, liked to be disgusted, liked to be terrified, and broadcasters without borders had quickly learned to mine this deep and disturbing vein in the American psyche” (89). King is a masterful storyteller who writes ironically about his own work, and peppers his stories with political opinion, satire, sage wisdom, and the occasional belly laugh. If you’ve never read him, this is a great way in.
There are several characters embedded in this edition who I want to know more about. That means going back to the beginning with DreadfulWater, originally published in 2002. Obsidian can be read as a standalone mystery but would definitely be richer with more background and description. These characters can quickly become old friends worth knowing. Check out The DreadfulWater Mysteries for a seductive and respectfully irreverent read you can’t put down.
“He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘You’re wild, not broken.’’’
A perceptive horse metaphor lopes through Book 2 of Kades’s Alberta Hearthstone series. The hero, Colt Tanner, is a gallant bull-rider and horse trainer who prefers to “start” a horse rather than “break” it. Truly chivalrous, the tall, sexy, Tanner sweeps disgraced MI6 war correspondent and courier, Lillian Kensington, off her feet when she arrives in the Canadian Rockies with PTSD, a fearsome past, and her nineteen-year-old niece, Sophie, in tow. In the beginning, I had trouble relating to this wealthy privileged Brit who travels with an elite troop of bodyguards, but I was struck by her intelligence and independence, as was Tanner. There is a reason for this protection—though her testimony has just sent him to prison, Lillian’s ex-lover, double-agent Fernando Martinez, has vowed to kill her.
Kades says she writes “eco-thrillers” but this book lands squarely in the romantic suspense genre, as she offers readers a sexy, sensitive romance in contrast with an insane escaped terrorist seeking revenge; RCMP officers; Colt’s brother who received a near-fatal gunshot while working in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service; a top notch special force who guard the wealthy and elite Miss Kensingtons; Martinez’s thugs; plenty of suspense and murderous threats.
Strong women feature. Lillian’s Scottish grandmum, Dame Maighread Evans Coille Kensington is a “ballsy political force” and runs the British estate with an iron fist. I was hooked early on by the promise of a historical mystery when Lillian discovers her great aunt’s seventeen-century fur-trading journals and shares Obedience’s leather-bound tomes with us—one of which is a “grimoire” of women’s knowledge. Lillian is intuitive and has been experiencing visions since her teen years. Though she can feel the energy pulsing through the book, she was struck blind by love in the case of Martinez; a truth that makes her distrustful of men and herself now.
Streaks of feminism color the pages. It’s grandmum who sends the women to the Rocky Mountains, Sophie to train as a biathlete, and Lillian to read the journals and discover her past. Kades has taken the concept of ecological restoration known as re-wilding and re-branded it to mean “returning to the core of who you are, the real you, where your identity is you, not your career, or what others think you should be.”
A Calgary archaeologist and Indigenous Knowledge study facilitator turned fiction writer, Kades is a two-time Energy Futures Lab Banff Summit storyteller. She lands her characters in a world of leather and horses, sunsets and mountain vistas, rodeo clowns and fierce bulls, and brings life to such classic Alberta scenes as the Calgary Stampede and trail rides in the Rocky Mountains. A strong writer with a flair for description, she sneaks in a few allusions to icons such as Gretsky, and the odd Canadian joke. If you’ve never been to Alberta, trust me, you’ll want to go cowboying after reading this book; perhaps even find your own cowboy.
Wild Not Broken is a standalone novel but, as with all series, could be a richer read after reading the first, Kiss Me in the Rain. Book three, Not an Easy Truce is scheduled for a June 2022 release, which leaves you time to catch up on the first two, and still enjoy what promises to be a delightful summer read.
Rockton is a town built on secrets. Everyone comes to this camouflaged Yukon haven with a colourful past and something to hide, be they victim or perpetrator, sociopath or healer. But what happens when the deepest of secrets are at risk of being revealed? Someone in Rockton is playing a deadly game and it’s up to Sheriff Eric Dalton and his partner, Detective Casey Duncan, to find out who it is and stop them, before fear and judgment rip this fragile town to shreds. With a population of 171, everyone has a secret, and only Sheriff Dalton has knowledge of them all.
We Rockton fans knew that one day there would be an end to this thrilling crime fiction series. When she released book six, New York Times best-selling author, Kelley Armstrong, told us she had a seven-book-contract. Big sigh. This is book seven and, yes, the people of Rockton have been given the word from their elusive governing council in the south that this is it. Their beloved Yukon hideaway is about to be dismantled; worse still, the townsfolks are tasked with the dismantling.
The story begins in the midst of this chaos with an unusual moment of calm—three peaceful days have merged into a friendly game of Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a beautiful July evening until the peace is shattered by a sign—a literal sign hanging in the street. “Will Anders is a killer. He lost his marbles and killed his army commanding officer and escaped to Rockton before they locked him in a loony bin.” Could it be true? What would you think if you saw a sign that revealed your town’s deputy sheriff was a crazy killer? This revelation triggers an escalating action that leaves scarcely a moment to breathe until the final page.
I appreciate how Armstrong provides a solid introduction to this book where she explains Rockton and the rules. “Residents come here under false names and false identities, and they must stay a minimum of two years.” Rockton is not new. It was created as a kind of commune in the 1950s, so it has its own history. The residents know the end is coming as the population has dwindled and no new folks have been admitted to this off-grid town in months. I’m going to miss Rockton. I’m going to miss these characters. I’ve followed Eric and Casey’s relationship from the very beginning, smiled through the introduction of their comical Newfoundland pup, Storm, and gritted my teeth through all the bizarre cases they’ve solved. This end is as tough for me, the reader, as it is for the residents of Rockton.
Also, in the introduction, Armstrong names the key characters and reminds us of their talents, skills, and jobs, many of which have nothing to do with each other. For example, Mathias, the town butcher, is a “psychologist with an expertise in criminal pathology.” Both skills come in useful in Rockton where every story involves at least one slightly bizarre murder. This book is no exception.
The stories for the most part are plot-driven. They’re crime novels so we spend most of the story inside Detective Casey Duncan’s head as she gathers clues and deciphers what they mean. Casey’s narration in first person present tense creates a sense of immediacy and illustrates how this brilliant woman’s brain fires. It’s taken seven books but we’ve come to know her, through her relationships with her dog, her partner, her sister, and her friends. Each book can be stand alone but I always find it’s richer to read a series in order and watch the character development.
Armstrong’s clear, tight prose is peppered with colourful vocabulary. I found myself looking up new words—slavering, moue, feminazi, tangentially. If you’re searching for an intelligent crime series steeped in nature and popping with psychopaths, look no further. The town of Rockton may be finished but the books live on forever.
What do you get when you cross an emergency-room doctor with an award-winning novelist? An insanely-twisted thriller that’s more connected than the vascular system.
White Lightning is book nine in the Hope Sze medical thriller series but reads like a standalone. It was my first Yi read but won’t be my last. The premise is simple—the complications are not.
Think of small things that pack a punch, and you’ve got Dr. Sze. Self-described as “five foot two and a quarter because of her ‘Asian genes’,” Hope is anything but diminutive. (And I have to wonder how much of Melissa Yi runs through the fictional veins of Hope Sze). She refers to herself as an “idiot savant sleuth” and definitely shows off her skills in this story.
When Hope and fellow doctors, Tori Yamamoto and John Tucker, take a weekend away from interning in Montreal, Hope’s platinum-haired fiancé, Tucker, insists they stay at the Rumrunner’s Rest, a historic inn in Windsor, Ontario. The Detroit River was once known as “Hooch Highway” as opportunists took to transporting alcohol across it from Canada into the United States during American Prohibition.
Right from page one, we know something’s up when the pragmatic Tori sees a ghost.
I love blended genres and that’s what’s brewing here—a murder mystery/thriller, with a dash of history, and a supernatural twist. Oh, and spiked with Rogue Con – a motley collection of theatrical villains, a stalker, the appearance of Hope’s recent ex-boyfriend (whom she still loves) AND the gruesome discovery of bones in the basement chimney.
But it’s not all fun and games.
Interwoven into the narrative is the story of orphan Edwin Jenkins, a six-year-old English chimney sweep, forced into servitude and early death. Edwin’s tragic tale is one of horror and exploitation. Later that theme replays with the introduction of a teen prostitute from Rogue Con.
Yi is a witty, playful writer who doesn’t shy away from spiking the text with expletives, sexy innuendos, and shots of pop culture. Her reactions to seeing her ex-boyfriend, in the basement at the unveiling of the mysterious bones, are priceless; in fact, the whole scene, wild rogues and all, is a comic tour-de-force. Twisted riddles on the title, White Lightning, are endless (I’ll let you sleuth them out) and the connections make for a meticulous mind-map. We even read a first-person interview with the original White Lightning who worked with the infamous Al Capone.
Technically the works of a medical crime writer, Yi’s Hope Sze thrillers have been recommended by The Globe and Mail, CBC Books, and The Next Chapter as some of the best Canadian suspense novels.
In this high voltage thriller, Yi weaves a tragic tapestry of exploitation, murder, mayhem, and revenge, spiked with comic relief. Don’t miss it.
