Frank Talaber. THUNDERBIRD'S WAKE. (Book 3 in the Stillwaters Run Deep Series) BWL (Books We Love), Airdrie, Alberta. Ebound. 2017.
Charlie Stillwaters accepts a contract as native Elder in a prison after the previous Elder was murdered in a sweatlodge ceremony. Charlie calls on his VPD detective friend Carol Ainsworth to help.
The cover is busy, poorly designed, although other titles in this writer's large oeuvre look good. My first hesitation is about appropriation of Indigenous stories. My second is the unconvincing, male fantasy, of a female police officer. But I like realistic portrayals of local settings (Vancouver and Prince Rupert), and I'm curious about the presentation of both prison politics and Indigenous characters.
Charlie is quirky, funny, with skills most of us cannot imagine. Skills to deal with creatures from other dimensions as well as pop-psych techniques to work with the stereotypical damaged inmates he "cures".
The writing is very action-oriented, with scenes seemingly written for graphic-novel lovers.
I accepted to read this book because it was presented to me, and because Talaber is a local writer. A very prolific local writer. His is the kind of writing passion I recognize and appreciate. I discovered, as I was trying to decide whether to skip all the fight scenes, that I am really not into "paranormal fantasy".
