THE PERPETUAL NOW

In Bourgault’s debut mystery with SF/fantasy touches, a boy bonds with a mysterious girl and investigates a suspect in his mother’s unexplained disappearance.

Justin Lambert, a biracial tween in Ferguston, Ontario, hasn’t seen or heard from his mom in a decade. She went missing in 1996, and the cops found her abandoned car but had little else to go on. Now the 12-year-old boy learns for the first time that there’s long been a suspect in his Black mother’s apparent kidnapping: David Raymond, a career criminal and white supremacist. Justin learns all he can about Raymond, digging into the man’s files at the health center where he volunteers and where his mother had worked. This angers Raymond, who has no qualms about threatening a kid. Around the same time, Justin makes a new friend in Billie; she seems to be about 10, and she responds to questions evasively or cryptically. He eventually surmises that’s she’s from outside Ferguston—possibly very far outside—and that she may have strange abilities that could help him bring a criminal to justice. Bourgault’s story is largely ambiguous. Early discussions with Billie, for example, just leave Justin confused; she mentions a “collective” and bizarrely asks him, without specifics, “Are these the only colours you have?” Still, Billie is likable, rather than off-putting; her closeness with and trust in Justin is apparent early on. The equally appealing Justin displays intelligence and tenacity. The splendid supporting cast also includes Justin’s father, a white middle-school teacher; and his dad’s older, “authentic flower child” brother. The mystery of Justin’s mother will maintain readers’ interest, and her son unearths a few surprises during his investigation. Meanwhile, details about Billie are revealed slowly, and readers will have a much sharper picture of the delightfully odd girl by the novel’s end.

An enthralling mystery with sublime characters.