An engaging and heartfelt tale of two former constables doing the right thing.
Two half siblings chart a new course when their police careers end.
In this follow-up to Lessard’s novel On Duty (2019), the author continues the story of half siblings and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constables Jasper Nelson and Heidi Finlay. Jasper and Heidi, who met and discovered their relationship as adults, work together in a rural community in the Northwest Territories until their refusal to cooperate with the bootlegging, lies, and corruption of a cabal of civic leaders. Jasper and Heidi survive an assassination attempt and resign their positions. Jasper sinks into depression as his efforts to set the record straight have little success. Heidi takes care of him as he becomes suicidal, and they both seek help from friends and former colleagues—including a minister, who suggests the sabbatical that provides the book’s title. When Jasper seems to be recovering, he suggests a visit to Cathedral Grove in British Columbia (“They have some of the highest and largest trees in the country”). While admiring the trees, Heidi and a friend are stunned to see Jasper mysteriously disappear into the grove. As the search for Jasper goes on without results, Heidi is left wondering whether he has harmed himself or she actually saw supernatural forces at work. Then Heidi reaches her own moment of crisis. Although the novel opens with an article by Jasper explaining the corruption that sets the plot in motion, Heidi’s narration guides most of the story. The book is an easy read, and the vivid descriptions bring the remote and unfamiliar setting to life. Despite the deep themes of morality, religion, and free will, the text is straightforward, focusing on the characters’ experiences rather than the underlying questions. Readers may find the role of Freemasonry in the corruption that upends Jasper’s and Heidi’s lives a bit far-fetched, but it is a minor part of the plot. Readers who are new to Jasper and Heidi’s story will have no trouble starting with this sequel.
An engaging and heartfelt tale of two former constables doing the right thing.Pub Date: July 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-03-914849-9
Page Count: 102
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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