Gail Bowen

The nails on the fingers that reached out to grab my arm as I left the Faculty Club's private dining room were bitten to the quick, and the cuticles were chewed raw. The hand belonged to a man whose rage was so fierce he had taken to ripping his own body, but it had become as familiar to me as my own.

I have a weakness for mysteries set in Canada, and so it’s surprising that I stumbled over Gail Bowen’s Saskatchewan-based* Joanne Kilbourn series only now. In a way that’s an advantage because it means that I have fourteen (to date) more entries in the series to catch up on.

Up-and-coming provincial politician Andy Boychuk is about to hold a speech before party supporters. Everything has been organized in detail, and everything seems to be going well, but then his speechwriter Joanne show more Kilbourn watches in horror as he takes a sip from his water and drops dead. Andy was not only Joanne’s boss, however, he was also a close friend – and in the course of setting out to write his biography, she cannot help but being drawn into the mystery of who killed him and why.

„The Deadly Appearances“ was written in 1990 but apart from a few contemporary references – nobody has a cell phone, of course, and at one point, the banks being closed on a holiday presents an organisational issue in a pre-ATM world – it has held up very well.

Joanne, an academic in her mid-forties, widowed mother of three, is a likeable and realistic heroine, and her friends and family are people one would not mind having in one’s own life. Her involvement in this case did not seem overly farfetched, and I’m curious to see how Bowen will pull this off in future volumes (a slight suspension of disbelief will naturally be necessary as I doubt that the murder rate in real-life Regina would support a murder with Joanne’s involvement every couple of years or so.

I listened to this book in the audio version read by Lisa Bunting and published by Post Hypnotic Press, and I have already got the next instalment.

*Full disclosure: I once hitchhiked from the east coast to Saskatoon just so I could say I had been to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. show less

Note: While this is Book 4 in the series, it works mostly well as a stand alone. There are definitely some character backstories that I was a bit muddled on, but in regards to the main plot, they dd not matter.

Set in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, Joanne Kilbourn is a parent, a professor, a TV panelist, and a widow. Now her past comes back to her with the news that Kevin Tarpley, the man who killed her husband, Ian, six years ago, was shot to death in the exercise yard of a Saskatchewan show more prison. Odd as that is, it pales in comparison to the unexpected photo of a young mother with her baby in Ian’s old wallet. Then Maureen, Kevin’s wife, shows up for cocktail drinks at one of Joanne’s local haunts and ends up dead. Joanne starts digging into her husband’s past in order to unravel her current mystery.

I can see why this series is so popular! I really enjoyed this Canadian mystery. Joanne is a very interesting character with her multiple professions and her single parenting skills. Toss in the 6-year-old case of her husband’s murder with the recent death of Maureen, and you have quite the engaging story. Joanne was really caught in this balancing act – does she ask the questions and possibly dig up hurtful information or does she let things lie and cherish the memories of the husband she knew?

Even though Maureen ends up dead in the first quarter of the book, I found her character rather seductive. She obviously has quite the ego on her. Even after her demise, we continue to learn about her as Joanne digs into the past. Maureen indeed was quite the little manipulator, but Joanne has to figure out why and to what ends.

Then there is that odd photo in her husband’s old wallet. Was this a secret lover of his? His baby? I really felt for Joanne as she struggled with what to do over the photo. Should she dig into it, hoping that there was some benign reason he had this photo? Or should she let things lie, maintaining the memory of her husband? This aspect of the story really shows Joanne in a very human light as she has some ungracious thoughts about her dead husband.

The story builds cleverly upon itself as one clue after another is dragged into the light. However, they don’t all appear to be part of the same puzzle. Joanne struggles to connect them all and it’s not until near the end that things become clear. There’s also some drama at the end as the real killer feels trapped and out of choices. It was a real spin up with a final, rather messy ending. Joanne will need therapy. I was so caught up in this book, I listened to it all in one day. I plan to go back to Book 1 and enjoy the rest of the series in sequential order to get the most out of it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Audiobook Jukebox.

Narration: Lisa Bunting was a really good pick as narrator. She was the perfect Joanne in my head. I liked her male and female character voices, as well as her regional accents. While I’m no expert on Canadian Native American accents, I can say that Bunting’s performance matched my experience with Native American accents here in New Mexico. I also liked her kid voices for the various kids in Joanne’s household. show less

As expected this was another great mystery from a Canadian writer.

In this book, Joanne Kilbourn is spending the Labour Day weekend with her kids, her lover, Alex Kequahtooway, his nephew, Eli and her friend Hilda. Unfortunately Eli disappeared from the CFL game they were attending after he heard a racist remark. Then an early morning call for Hilda reveals that Madame Justice Justine Blackwell, a good friend of Hilda's, has been brutally murdered. Eli turns up but has no recollection of show more what he did in the intervening time. Although Justine has three grownup daughters, Hilda is asked to deal with the media and handle other matters. Just before her death Justine had asked Hilda to assess her mental capacity because some people thought she was acting irrationally. This irrationality was based on the fact that Justine had realized she had treated accused persons who appeared before her callously and she was trying to make amends. Hilda decides to continue the job Justine gave her. Joanne has her hands full with the start of school, the birth of her first grandchild and helping Alex with Eli but Justine's death hangs over them all.

Joanne is a superwoman. She teaches, she appears on a TV show, she's a great mom and a good cook. She even gardens and maintains a home and she has time to be in a loving relationship that brings its own trials. On top of all that, she solves crimes. When I'm reading these books Bowen makes it all sound so plausible but now I'm done I think it's a good thing this is a work of fiction. Nobody could be that perfect! But it does make for a captivating read. show less