by Gail Bowen
Canadian Grand Master of Crime Gail Bowen turns in a tour-de-force for her series devotees with The Unlocking Season, the nineteenth entry in her Joanne Kilbourn series.
'Unlocking' here refers not only to solving the crimes both large and small that occur, but to unlocking long-buried memories and emotions from Joanne's youth. She's acting as a script consultant for a documentary series about the decades-long intertwining of her family’s superficially serene life with the decidedly un-peaceful life of that notorious artistic dynasty, the Love family.
The documentary opens on a flashback, a young Joanne and her best friend Sally Love, on a raft at a lake where they'd spent so many golden summers. Longtime series fans will recall what happened during that last idyllic summer: an event that changed all their lives forever, and built relationships between the characters that endure, deepen, and sometimes tragically end during succeeding novels.
As the documentary script comes together, much is revealed or revisited from the earliest books, arising gracefully in conversation and inner monologues, punctuated by the sights, sounds, and aromas of life in a large, loving, multi-generational family. Series regulars make appearances, catching the longtime fan up on developments in the lives of family members and friends. For new readers, trying to keep track of all the characters mentioned in the early chapters could be challenging, however Bowen does her usual exemplary quick sketches delineating the family connections and their historical significance, and as rapidly lets us know which characters are leaving the stage and which will be key players in this particular volume.
The plot kicks into a higher gear quickly enough once the chief scriptwriter is found wandering, dazed and delusional, after a location-scouting trip to a renowned photographer's island cabin. More troubles pile up, pointing to larger issues in the writer'slife, and soon the whole show is in jeopardy.
The
efforts of Joanne and the production people to get the documentary back
on track are a jointly a foray into the mysteries of television
production and a slow-build corkscrew penetrating the messy personal and
business relationships of cast members and production crew. Tempers
flare. Disagreements spiral into destruction. Nobody knows who to trust
as the tension thickens on-set and off. The stage is set for a
conflagration that may destroy the production as well as the people.
As
a longtime reader of the series, I'm easily drawn back into worrying
for my favourite characters, especially Taylor Love, daughter of the
ill-fated Sally, whose life I have followed with a whole heart for
nearly two decades now. I also particularly enjoy the author's attention
to sensory details: the repeat appearances of forsythia outside the
window where Joanne rests her eyes and mind, The swath of Prussian Blue
silk enfolding us in Joanne’s memories of a woman she both adored and
feared. The meals that tantalize your tastebuds. Most particularly the
paintings done by Sally Love and her father Desmond; these fictional
images form the backbone of many scenes in the series. In this book they
are deliberately placed to inspire, reflect, and add layers of meaning
for both characters and readers as the complex plot yields up its
secrets one shattered lock at a time.
A word about the narration: at first the narrator seems too young for Joanne at sixty, but her characterization grew on me and the female characters were easy to distinguish from each other. The masculine voices were less successfully differentiated and somewhat flat-sounding in terms of emotional tone.
This novel is highly recommended as either a fitting continuance or an introduction to this long-running series.
*Audiobook via NetGalley
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