A law enforcement novel with engaging characters but uneven storytelling.
In Lessard’s debut novel, two siblings fight crime and desperation in rural Canada.
As the story opens, Vancouver-based Constable Jasper Nelson meets Heidi Finlay, a fellow member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the half sister that he only learned about just before his father’s recent death. The two quickly bond, and Jasper transfers to join Heidi in Inuvik, the rural Northwest Territories town where she grew up and still works. He quickly finds his footing in the north, and the siblings deal with crimes involving drugs, theft, abduction, suicide, and assault. After a brief transfer to an even more remote posting in Repulse Bay, they return to Inuvik only to run into trouble with corrupt local officials. The story alternates between both siblings’ first-person perspectives, and Heidi and Jasper have entirely distinct narrative voices. The more urbane and educated Jasper has a tendency to make grandiose pronouncements while Heidi tends to be more pragmatic (“I think it is relevant to expand on this family business, and I will tell it like it is”). The narrative becomes more episodic as the book progresses, presenting the cops’ adventures without making clear connections between them, and the sudden pivot to a conspiracy in the final chapter (which involves Freemasons) is unexpected. There are several well-developed Indigenous characters, but other depictions verge on stereotype, such as that of the first person Jasper sees in Inuvik: “A drunken Inuvialuk was lying on the church steps, an empty mickey in his hand.” Lessard is clearly knowledgeable about the cultures that she presents, however, and her book does a good job of showing the complicated and problematic relationship between Indigenous communities and the officials who often victimize them. A rich cast of secondary characters, including Bible-quoting Sgt. Nathaniel Matthews and Heidi’s friend Sarah Kudlak, is one of the novel’s strengths.
A law enforcement novel with engaging characters but uneven storytelling.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4036-3
Page Count: 174
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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