Elizabeth Renzetti

As a woman of the same vintage as Ms Renzetti but brought up in a very different household, I loved reading her perspective of the events we have both witnessed as women living in Canada. The essays have a wonderful strip of humour through them (always wished I had that gift in my writing) and cover some very important topics. I appreciate her discussion around intersectionality and the responsibility women like her and I have to the voices who have been silenced or marginalized in our show more lifetimes. Her "Four Lions" essay about her interviews with four influential women was inspiring and eye-opening. And if I hadn't been reading on a bus at the time I probably would have shouted "Amen" on every page in the essay, "You'll Pay For Those Breasts or The Costs of Being a Lady". Every man needs to read "The Way of the Harasser" (ideally they should read the whole book but I'll settle for that essay).

This is a clear clarion of change that's a must read for any feminist, especially ones who live in Canada. show less

IN A NUTSHELL
A big improvement on the first book. It has a stronger plot with more interesting characters. Seeing Cat's relationship with her formidable mother brought her character to life. The subtextual and sometimes explicit critique of the 'Wellness' industry and the anti-science cults spreading misinformation on social media gave the book an edgier, more contemporary feel.

'Widows And Orphans' (2025) is the second book in a new cosy mystery series about Cat Conway, a former Toronto TV show more journalist who, after a divorce and an on-air incident, has restarted her life working for the Quill and Packet, a print newspaper in a small provincial town in Canada. The first book ‘Bury The Lead’(2024) was an entertaining mystery about a murder in the local theatre. It handled some #MeToo themes quite well and kept my interest in finding out who the killer was but the character of Cat Conway felt a little flat to me. Even so, I pre-ordered the second book 'Widows And Orphans' and I'm glad I did. It seemed to me that Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti got into their stride with this book. The pacing was tighter, the plot was more complicated and the people were fascinating and credible.

This time, I got inside Cat Conway's head and started to understand her. The story is set at a Wellness conference run by two young widows whose podcast on surviving grief has a huge following. Cat's mother, a celebrity best known for her book on female leadership, is a speaker at the conference. The dynamic between Cat and her mother was fascinating to watch.

I enjoyed how Hilton and Renzetti wove a critique of the ‘Wellness’ industry, the spread of disinformation, and the anti-science cults into the mystery. Their observations were penetrating, topical, credible and fully integrated into the mystery. I also liked how they played with the widows and orphans theme to display the different ways that family members deal with conflict and tragedy. The mystery stayed cosy in the sense that there was no directly observed blood and gore but this isn't a story that happens in a bubble of niceness and safety. The setting and themes are firmly rooted in the real world and the story is stronger as a consequence.

My wife and I listened to this on a couple of long drives that weren't quite long enough to finish the book so when we arrived home, we listened for another hour or so to see how everything worked out.

I’ll be back for book three whenever it comes out.

I recommend the audiobook version of 'Widows And Orphans'. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample of Marnye Young's narration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_5hsnfPcEM show less

Cozy in Cottage Country, Canada
Review of the House of Anansi Spiderline paperback (March 5, 2024).

I thought of what Hugh MacLennan* had written, so many years ago, about this country: "My God, is all this ours?" But it wasn't all ours. It belonged to the people who could afford the land titles. It had been the home of the Anishinaabeg, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee, but the squatters on Millionaires' Hill did not seem in any hurry to give it back.

OK, I'm biased here as these are hometown show more Toronto authors writing a small town theatre story with enough local allusions and other Canadian references that I can picture the setting even though it may be combined from several places in order to create the one in the fictional world.

Journalist Cat Conway has ended up back in her home town working at its Quill & Packet newspaper after being bounced from her network TV job after physically attacking a goon troll that harassed her on-camera. The background to that is drawn from various harassment incidents on female reporters across Canada and the U.S. There was a famous case in Newfoundland several years ago for instance. I am not going to repeat the despicable thing which is shouted out.

The town of Port Ellis is a cottage country theatre community with a long history (in Ontario I immediately think of the Stratford Festival or the Shaw Festival) that draws big-name screen and TV actors for its seasonal repertory theatre. The town also has its large contingent of rich cottage country homes in the so-called Millionaires' Hill (I immediately think of the Muskoka Lakes). The current season marks the return of veteran Eliot Fraser, who was launched onto the world stage after his appearance at the inaugural season many years earlier. Various other prominent actors make up the casts for Inherit the Wind and Much Ado About Nothing which are the two plays in rep.

But on opening night, the star attraction Eliot Fraser dies on stage. Was it an accident or murder? The autopsy will tell and it suddenly turns out that the actor had enemies all over the place, whether it was ex-wives, fellow actors, #metoo assaults, ghost writers, business & legal dealings and from his just plain vindictive narcissistic behaviour. But who hated him enough to kill him and how did they manage to do it?

Conway sees the story as a path to redemption in her journalism career, perhaps even back to the larger Toronto newspaper she had exited in order to get the TV network job. As a mob of international journos descends on Port Ellis (this is in the nature of BIG news, i.e. as if it was a Robert deNiro or Al Pacino type) looking for a scoop, Conway tries to use her local connections to both solve the murder and break the story. Along the way another actor is assaulted and then Conway herself is threatened and then attacked. Can she survive and still solve the case?

I enjoyed this tremendously for its local Ontario small town flavour and the various type of journo insider commentary such as:

Journalists used Twitter the way that European explorers had used the St. Lawrence River: for navigating new territory and trading valuable goods. Also dumb jokes and insults. It had become a bit polluted lately, but there was still room in the current for everything.

This is in the nature of a cozy, so don't worry about noirish blood and gore if that is not your thing. The Afterword announces that Widows and Orphans will be the next Quill & Packet Mystery. It is not yet listed on Goodreads, but a 2025 release date is the most likely.

Footnote
* This quote is from the book Two Solitudes (1945). show less

I picked up 'Bury The Lead' off the back of a review from someone I follow. The title made me smile because it managed to say Murder, Journalism and Theatre in one phrase. The premise, which combines amateur sleuth in a Canadian small town AND drama backstage in the theatre, called to me. It's also the first book in a new series so, if I liked it, I'd have a new set of cosy mystery comfort reads available to me.

So, did it live up to my expectations?

For the most part, yes. Certainly enough show more for me to want to read 'Widows And Orphans', the next book in the series, when it comes out next month.

I liked that the amateur sleuth was a journalist who wanted a story rather than to beat the police to solving the murder. It gave a credible reason for most of her actions. It helped that both the journalism and the small-town theatre parts of the story felt real.

The mystery had just enough twists to keep me interested without making me feel we'd lost touch with reality. OK, our heroine took a few more risks than any sensible person might but it made the story more fun and didn't leave me thinking she was either an innocent or an idiot.

There were strong #metoo themes to the story that were a little outside the norm for a cosy mystery. Nothing happened on screen but the story didn't back away from showing either how sleazy the men were/are or from describing the damage they did to the women's lives.

I'd have liked the main character to be a little more engaging. She felt a little flat in terms of personality. I think some of that was the need to get her backstory on the page. I'm hoping she'll become more interesting as the series continues.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Marnye Young, who I thought did a good job. show less