From the shores of Wascana Creek, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canadian writer Gail Bowen has released the 10th Joanne Kilbourn mystery. I am fond of Ms. Bowen's work. She has a great sense of place; Regina and Saskatoon, windy prairie cities with the pastoral charm and small town spirit of Lake Wobegon and Fargo, plus cold winters, seem like nice places.
Bowen writes mysteries around a mature woman - a grandmother - with a life and career that does not revolve on anger and violence. She gets mood and emotional colour, and her characters live ordinary lives, taking care of each other. She is a great advocate of the virtues of taking care of the people you care about, tolerating their foibles and enjoying the rhythms of daily life - the conversations, meals and routines that make up our lives.
The Endless Knot has her usual strengths, but also brings some of her weaknesses into focus. The plot is contrived and serves as a platform for politically correct judgmental commentary. An ex-folksinging duo who have since become wealthy, and have met Jesus in a big evangelical church in Calgary, have a transgendered child, who has been interviewed by a cold-blooded bitch of a journalist who empathizes with child in order to get sensational celebrity dirt on the family for a book. Dad is on trial for shooting and wounding the bitch.
In this scenario Kilbourn has lots of people to pity and judge - lawyers, fundamentalists, journalists, politicians. The Fundamentalist mom gets particular hell for not supporting her son's gender switch. The Culture Wars are being fought in the Canadian West, and Bowen is clear about where she stands. Bowen does, however, better with lawyers and trials than in her last book, The Last Good Day.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!