Written by Colleen Tsoukalas
From Nelson, B.C., Rachel Greenaway situates her RCMP Crime team in North Vancouver, a rainy West Coast city, surrounded by dark, dense forests and featuring, this time, the scenic Seymour River, calm and and inviting on a hot day, but potentially deadly for some standing on the cliffs, garnering up the courage to jump, or being pushed or falling into those deep, rocky pools. There is this river, life enhancing or life threatening and then the 'river' of lies that start with half truths and spread quickly and widely, affecting individuals: a baby, kids, parents, step parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, a counsellor, a janitor, a girlfriend, a cop and the crime team. There is murder, kidnapping, suspect Valentine's cards and letters, over the knee suede boots, flashy bracelets, toy stuffies, stolen booze, pristine riverside mansions, hidden cabins, graves, black Cadillacs and relationships, always those complex, humans again. Sergeant Mike Bosco, calm, in charge and team building, yet continuing to search for evidence that Constable Cal Dion, is guilty of murder, and asking that Dion's partner, David Leith, not only work with Dion to solve other murders and find a missing child, but also use that partnership to confirm or deny that Dion has a criminal history. There are the romantic relationships, ones that are "sturdy trellises" versus others that are more tenuous. There is the increasingly developing role of the strong female lead: Constable J.D. Temple, too, struggling with team dynamics on her own terms. The novel ends in death, the death of cop, Ken Poole. J.D. is looking at the scene and thinking about the evidence. Did Ken know anything about the rumored murder of which Dion is suspected? If he has been silenced, then is Poole's death, suicide or murder? The final line, "Open and shut, it seemed. Maybe." leads nicely into more for book six, in the B.C. BLUES CRIME series. Great writing makes you think and feel. I feel that I really miss this dynamic group, now that I have finished the book. I look forward to meeting them, again, like old friends. I think that although we hear a lot about crime, that it is very difficult to write about how and why they might be committed, and about those who commit them and those who, in R.M. Greenaway's books, solve them, or most of them.....
Greenaway, R.M.
Dundurn, Toronto
2020
Photo of the Seymour River in its quietest space by Luke the Photographer
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