An engaging, contemplative whodunit that advocates for animal intelligence and human compassion.
In this mystery, Canadian detectives investigate the murder of a charismatic woman beloved by people and animals.
In a home on Lake Memphremagog in southern Quebec, 16-year-old Lucas Power wanted to be hypnotized. He enlisted Nicol Fulmar, a beautiful neighbor known for her deep connection to animals and nature, to help him defeat his fear of dark spaces. After the session, Lucas used Nicol’s upstairs washroom. Downstairs, Nicol took a sharp instrument between her shoulder blades and died. Now, Inspector Gabriel Duforêt, from the nearby town of Magog, tries to solve a murder in which the weapon has vanished and a history of orphan abuse looms over the countryside. He’s joined by Lt. Maxine LeBlanc, with whom he interviews Nicol’s neighbors and relations. Gabriel, a recovering alcoholic, must keep calm as he learns about the Cache Mission, an orphanage that not only abused children, but also misrepresented them as disabled to garner better government funding. As the case proceeds, a vibrant portrait emerges of Nicol as a protector of animals and a woman open to romantic entanglements. Numerous locals bear closer scrutiny, including lonely husband and father Wyatt Evans; Nicol’s scornful adoptive mother, Estephania; and Nicol’s potential rival, Naomi Savage. And what of the remarkable crow, cat, and octopus Nicol left behind? Harris uses nostalgia and a powerful understanding of animal minds to fashion this unique mystery. Nicol’s childhood spent exploring nature on the lake exerts a strong emotional pull in flashbacks. In one scene, she cares for a dying mouse, encompassing the narrative’s moral thrust in the line “Every creature, no matter how big or small has the same sized soul.” Mowat the crow and Casanova the octopus are playful creatures with detailed roles to perform. Gabriel, meanwhile, is the consummate gentleman, especially regarding the lovely Maxine. He befriends Father André Barberio, a local Benedictine monk, whose forthcoming nature, mystery buffs will note, stands out in the village’s hushed atmosphere of malice. Overall, the author succeeds in illustrating that human strictures on nature and society sometimes cause more harm than good.
An engaging, contemplative whodunit that advocates for animal intelligence and human compassion.Pub Date: April 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-03-914037-0
Page Count: 168
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
