Bernadette Calonego

I LOVED this book. The writing style, the characters, the unsolved mysteries, the budding romance, there was just something about this book. I felt like I was right beside Lori as she photographed Newfoundland (minus the very cold weather). Lori, a photographer fond of berets, is spending a year in a remote fishing village in Newfoundland. She's being commissioned to take photos for a coffee table book. Stormy Cove is completely different than her life in Vancouver. The general store doesn't show more even sell butter, only margarine. I cannot wait to read more books by Bernadette Calonego. show less

I bought this book at a souvenir shop in St Anthony, Newfoundland while on a holiday. Unfortunately I couldn't fit all three of the Calista Gates books in my suitcase and settled on just the first one. Once in my reading queue, I devoured it in a long weekend at the cottage.

Gates is a respected detective with the RCMP in Vancouver who has recently recovered from a brain injury following a vicious attack. Her superiors are hesitant to fully reinstate her, so they deploy her for a three-year show more term to a small village in Labrador, where the local mountie detachment had been struggling with a three-year old missing persons case that just developed into homicide. Calista begrudgingly accepts her assignment and is like a fish out of water having to learn about the elements, the weather and more importantly, the people and customs of this bizarre frontier.

While investigating the murder, two more bodies will fall and Calista must prove to her superiors, the locals and herself that she hasn't lost her keen abilities--especially when she finds herself targeted by a killer!

This was a great mystery thriller to read and was well paced. The author does an astute job of teaching the reader about the the province and setting the tone. It's translated from German and there were two instances of German words that were left in, which I thought was a fun quirk. Highly recommended and I'm now searching for the other two titles of the series online. show less

4 and 1/2 stars.
Stormy Cove by Bernadette Calonego and translated from German by Gerald Chapple is an evocative page-turner in which the setting of Stormy Cove in Newfoundland reflects the moodiness of the novel’s actions and characters.

Lori Finning, a Vancouver-based photographer, comes to remote Stormy Cove to take pictures for a coffee-table book for Mona Blackwood, a publisher in Calgary. Lori understands right away that this is an unusual request and that Mona may have an underlying show more motive, but takes the job which will have her residing in Stormy Cove for a year documenting the daily lives of the fishermen and other inhabitants.

Immediately Lori finds that the people of Stormy Cove, although close-knit, are welcoming and eager to help her. They invite her into their lives. One fisherman, in particular, Noah Whalen, mysterious and handsome, offers to take her around on snow-mobile and his fishing boat.

The death twenty years ago of one of Stormy Cove’s own, Jacinta Parsons, still hovers over the town and its people. Lori’s curiosity takes over and she probes into the murder along with the disappearance of Una Gould, whose house she is staying in. It soon becomes apparent that although the residents of Stormy Cove are congenial, they have their own secrets that they don’t share and they may even be misleading Lori.

And, then there’s the mysterious Isle of Demons where a strange, pained howling can be heard. No one knows why this howling occurs and there seems to be no natural reason for it, but once heard, it stays forever with a person.

As Lori’s life becomes entwined with Stormy Cove’s residents, another murder occurs, seemingly linked to Jacinta Parsons’. Who can be trusted now? And, what exactly is Lori capable of? Because she may not be as innocent as she seems.

Stormy Cove is cleverly plotted with a seemingly straight road diverging off into paths that dead-end or curve back. The reader begins to be unsure of whether the narrator is completely reliable and what exactly the “nice” people of Stormy Cove are hiding. However, thankfully, this isn’t written in the Gone Girl fashion of twists that has become de rigueur. In some ways, the tone and setting of Stormy Cove reminds me of gothic novels.

Calonego has done an excellent job of characterization. Lori is not just a straight-forward narrator. She is a complex character with faults and weaknesses that come into play. Although initially tactful in order to not alienate the townspeople, she becomes more brash. I found the characterization to be a refreshing change from the usual mystery heroines who are either glib and irreverent or mousy.

There’s a fair amount of interesting Canadian history regarding the native inhabitants, the European settlers, and the fishing life. As well, Calonego does a good job of bringing to life, the struggles of fishermen in an over-fished world.

Overall, an excellent read, much recommended.

This book will be published on May 24, 2016.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

This was a somewhat uneven but engaging novel set in Newfoundland. I was never quite sure if I was reading a thriller, a romance, a mystery, or a travelogue, even as I finished the book. But that was part of its appeal, I think.

The main character is a photographer hired to spend a year photographing a remote fishing village in Newfoundland. The book does an excellent job describing this location and its inhabitants. The mystery, or mysteries, are not always clearly defined, and don't always show more come together in a completely satisfying way. Similarly, the romance is a bit tentative and smoldering, on the verge of needing more kindling. I don't know if the initial scene in the book is really helpful in setting up the story or not, and there were some loose ends, it seemed, throughout the book.

In the end, though, I enjoyed reading it and learned a bit about Newfoundland. show less