IONA WHISHAW

Whishaw, Iona. LETHAL LESSON, A SORROWFUL SANCTUARY, and A DECEPTIVE DEVOTION. 

One great tip from a book club reader. I read the first volume of this series, A KILLER IN KING'S COVE, set near Nelson, BC, a couple of months ago. Lane Winslow is a retired British spy trying to recover from her work during WW II and the demise of a deceitful relationship by emigrating to Canada. She buys an old house across the lake from Nelson in 1946 and attempts to settle in amidst an array of wacky neighbours, one family of American immigrants, the rest mostly British, some who emigrated pre- or post-WW I. 

After an early wrongful arrest, Lane develops a relationship with local police inspector, Frederick Darling, and his #2 man, Ames.

In LETHAL LESSON, the plot stems from an unsolved hit and run, the disappearance of the local teacher, and Lane's few weeks covering the school until the new term and a new teacher can arrive.

In A SORROWFUL SANCTUARY, a missing local man's case crosses with the murder of a John Doe who is finally identified as a former refugee attempting to escape from the Nazis and recently disturbed at what he sees as the rise of Naziism in BC. 

In A DECEPTIVE DEVOTION, Lane harbours an old Russian lady looking for a lost brother whose arrival overlaps with the mysterious murder of a hunter. Lane's old handlers in England come back into play as does the "Commie scare" and the hunting of Soviet spies in Canada.

How I love this series. #1 It is Canadian. #2 It is set in BC. #3 It includes people very like my own grandmother who emigrated to Canada, settled in Kaslo just up the lake from Nelson, in 1912. #4 Lane's telephone, a crank, a horn-shaped speaker on the wall, an earpiece shaped like a Christmas bell ornament, is identical to the one on my grandmother's ranch in Kettle Valley which I knew from the age of 3. #5  Lane is a determinedly independent woman who struggles with the gender expectations of her era. For example, having been raised with servants, she has never learned to cook. #6 Darling is as enlightened as one could hope for for the times but mostly because he has an inkling what work Lane survived during the war. 

MONSTERS

Robertson, David A. MONSTERS. Highwater, 2018.

Five years ago I read the first of this Reckoner Trilogy series, STRANGERS. I'm watching for the third and final. 

I've also read Robertson's graphic novel, BETTY: The Helen Betty Osborne Story, and his children's book, WHEN WE WERE ALONE.

I know Robertson is a great writer and an interesting man. Also, that his father was from Norway House and head of BUNTEP, the Brandon University Northern Teacher Education? Program, established in the 1970s to train local people to teach in reserve schools. An especially successful program. Thus, my main interest in Robertson's work is because it is often set in Norway House, or on a reserve very like Norway House, with character names using many local family names. Such a bonus for students in the north looking in vain to see themselves and their neighbours represented.

In this YA novel, MONSTERS, the protagonist, Cole Harper, has returned from 
"exile" in Winnipeg to the reserve to find out details about his father's mysterious death. Cole suffers from anxiety and takes medication for it. Reading about his anxiety created feelings of anxiety in me. Convincing. Characters include best friends Brady and Eva, Eva's boyfriend Michael, and Cole's new possible, Pam. A main character is the all-powerful imaginary Choch who sometimes manifests as a basketball coach, and Jayne, a dead girl. The bad guys are local politicians and unscrupulous corporations performing unauthorized experiments on the residents of the Wounded Sky Reserve.

So, there's fantasy and a bit, a fair bit of horror, along with more familiar themes of an outsider trying to connect, an adolescent trying to hook up, and a natural northern setting which is perceived as both nurturing and threatening. 

EMBERS: One Ojibway's MEDITATIONS

 Wagamese, Richard. EMBERS: One Ojibway's Meditations. Douglas and McIntyre, 2016. 

This is a  meditation, a compilation of Wagamese's Instagram post, published posthumously. 

During my recent move, March, 2026, I culled one half of my library and since then I've been haunted by only a handful of titles that I have missed and will attempt to replace. EMBERS was the first, although I do believe that I may have given my original copy to a beloved friend. The next to look for, perhaps at the Rotary book sale, is a coffee-table book about the construction of the great cathedrals of Europe. This may be more difficult to replace.

I Dared to Dream

Nozamani, Ghazaleh. I Dared to Dream. 2026. 

I loved this book and learned a great deal about how women struggle in other parts of the world. In this case, Iran. I wrote about it in my Substack One Lonely Writer, "Hold Fast to Your Dreams".