With none of my wish list books available at the local library, and Covid lockdown again in effect, I resorted to browsing in the small lending library at William’s Court and came away with this novel. At least it is by a Canadian, modern, set in the Quebec’s Eastern Townships, and favourably reviewed.
In 2018, five siblings gather at the children’s summer camp that their parents and grandparents had run for generations for the reading of the will of their father. This trite plot ploy is accompanied by flashbacks to the assault on a teenage girl at the camp twenty years earlier, leaving her in a permanent vegetative state. Leads and inevitable false leads as to who assaulted her is dribbled out in flashbacks that also uncover multiple family secrets, animosities, and suspicions. The mandatory illegitimate child, secret gay relationships and casual graphically-described sex that seems obligatory in such mystery thrillers are all here. There are more teenage one-time hookups than would realistically ever be tolerated at any summer camp. There are also many false leads as the real culprit in the assault is carefully portrayed as being least likely until the last few pages.
A helpful graphic map of the fictional camp layout is provided and after some initial confusion, I had little difficulty in keeping the characters distinguished from one another.
To be fair, this is a light and entertaining read that will appeal to a certain demographic, as the author must know-this is her ninth mystery novel. But it is neither edifying nor humorous, and I thought the characters were a bit unrealistic and the plot a bit formulaic. I think the author should stick to her day job in a Montreal law practice.
The Passionate Reader 