The THEORY of CROWS

David A. Robertson. THE THEORY OF CROWS. Harper, 2022.

Picked this up from the National Indigenous Day display at the library. Would like to own a copy. DAR's first adult novel. Set in Winnipeg and the rivers around Norway House. Two more good reasons to want to read it. Matthew McIvor and his daughter Holly decide to take some of Moshom's ashes home to the trapline where he grew up. Their relationship has had its tensions. Holly feels that her father has failed to support her, did not show up at her water polo meet. And that he is skating on thin ice (sexting a woman from work). She learns through counselling, dreams, secret letters, that his behaviour is part of his own being "fucked up" by anxiety (and medication) which he has not yet learned to manage on his own. Once the plot gets to their being in a canoe on the river, think a kinder gentler more northern Deliverance.

The land remembers you and you remember the land, even if you nave never been there before. And the crows remember too. Bears are our relatives.

12 ROSE STREET

 Gail Bowen. 12 ROSE STREET: A Joanne Kilbourn Mystery. Penguin, 2015.

This mystery should come with a trauma trigger warning. Joanne and Zach are still at it like rabbits. Bad news about the dead puts a damper on the election. Not to mention murder and attempted murders. City politics, slum landlords, disrespect for the urban poor all play a role in the tense campaign. Along with criminal sexual behaviour, unprofessional medical treatment, questionable journalistic ethics. Oh, Regina! 

STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE

Ian Rankin. STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE. Orion, 2012.

Another find at the library book sale. Another lost weekend. I love this character, and this writer. I cannot believe I missed this one. Rebus is retired and working on a cold case unit SCRU, when a girl goes missing and a grieving mother attempts to tie her missing daughter to the recent case--the possibility of a serial killer along the A9. Rebus is at his worst, out of shape, still smoking, and drinking too much, but realizing that, without work, he feels his life has no meaning. Will he attempt to re-enlist? Well, I've read a couple of later titles, so I know the answer is yes. 

This book has maps of the vast (for Scotland) area being investigated. Inverness. Aviemore, a ski resort. Who knew? I love the Edinburgh setting and now we get outside city limits, new towns, new police agencies with whom to liaise. The relationship between Rebus and his former coworker Siobhan Clarke is still a highlight. References to his beloved music (including the misheard line which is the title) is still part of the fun. Will Rebus bring Shiv down when he crashes and burns? Just whose grave are we talking about?

 

CURIOSITY

 Joan Thomas. CURIOSITY. McClelland & Stewart, 2010.

I seldom to never re-read books. Just too many to read, too little time. But I chose to re-read Joan Thomas' CURIOSITY after a brief conversation with a friend about Mary Anning, the heroine of this novel. Besides, I read it more than ten years ago, before my latest trip to Lyme Regis. Before I visited Mary's grave and the Lyme Regis museum, and brought home ammonites from her cliffs, as talismans from the area where one of my grandmothers was born. It is a wonderful read, made even better by knowing that all the characters are based on actual people. Really makes me wish that I still had a copy of The French Lieutenant's Woman, the film, and all its scenes on the Cobb and in the forested Undercliff. The landscape is also part of the pleasure of watching the BROADCHURCH series too. 

for one more day

Mitch Albon. for one more day. Hyperion, 2006.

Chick Benetto's life started going downhill when his father abandoned the family. Then it was worse, when Chick was injured out of his career as a professional baseball player. Unresolved family issues, career problems, alcohol abuse make everything worse. In an effort to return to where everything started, Chick is driving drunk when he is in a collision with a truck. In the interim before we know what happens, he spends one more day with his late mother. Some of the issues and some of the mysteries are resolved, before the end. 

Very engaging. A clear story of how the problems of one generation continue to haunt the next. And of how children so often get things wrong.

BOOKED TO DIE

John Dunning. BOOKED TO DIE. Avon, 1992.

A great thriller making the rounds of my book-reading friends. Cop Dr. Cliff Janeway loves books and decides to make a new career as a bookman. But bookscouts start to turn up dead. And then others, closer to home. What is behind the crime wave? The doctor uses his out-dated ID to investigate. A love-at-first sight plot is intertwined. 

PERMANENT ASTONISHMENT: A MEMOIR

Tomson Highway. PERMANENT ASTONISHMENT: A MEMOIR. Penguin, Random House, 2021.

Memories from Tomson Highway's early years with family and nine years at Guy Hill Residential School. All the time I was reading it, I was wishing I had the audio book read by the writer. He has such a beautiful voice, and he would be able to say the names and the Cree words properly. His way of speaking is OTT as always, hyperbolic. Which is part of the humour and part of the culture--especially his insistence in naming a person along with his position in family, both parents' family of origin, and home community. Such a positive attitude. So determined to see the best possible way to interpret even traumatic situations (such as routine molestation of boys at school) or the disappointment when a promised gift did not materialize because of a loss at gambling. A musical prodigy. A student who loves learning and performing and dramatic ritual. I am hoping there will be a sequel talking about his high school years in Winnipeg, his musical and writing careers, and the loss of his beloved younger brother.