Novels No. 30 (LL348)

 

Waubgeshig Rice. Moon of the Turning Leaves. Random House Canada, 2023.

Here, an epic journey worthy of the ancient Greeks. In the preceding book, Moon of the Crusted Snow, the lights went out in Northern Ontario. As far as inhabitants of a small reservation town knew, the whole world had lost the industrial age. It was literally back to the land. Since then, a new generation knows only this primitive existence. Now, resources in their resettlement location have run low—fish and game and fruit. They want to return to their distant ancestral origins on the north shore of Georgian Bay. But that requires a scouting party to develop a route and ensure that the location ‒ which none of them have ever seen ‒ is a safe one. At about thirty kilometres per day, they will spend a month or so travelling. They are armed.

Evan Whitesky becomes the scouts' leader, with his daughter Nangohns, the community's finest bow hunter; his best friend Tyler, Cal, Amber, and J.C. make up the rest, each with a skill to facilitate their mission. Respect for nature and the land is paramount, in the small acts of daily life before they leave, and while on the trail. Foraging for food along the way means encountering wildlife and biting flies. Passing former urban areas, they see the devastation of the great power failure, somehow connected to a monumental exhibition of aurora borealis years ago. In the modest-size city to the south that the older men knew as Gibson, buildings and infrastructure are overgrown and crumbling. Uncurbed fires and floods have done their damage, people have disappeared. Yet in the forests and changing terrain they come across small populated settlements or roving militia bands—using or searching for scavenged materials. Sometimes our band is welcomed, sometimes they are terrorized. Tragedy reduces their numbers.

I had a sense of affiliation because of today's global warming, erratic weather, and "natural" disasters. Unlike the Anishinaabek, we've lost our deep connection to Earth, our gratitude for its lifegiving power. Author Rice provides another fascinating look at dystopian devastation.

Bits

▪ Glistening drops of blood speckled the leaves and branches on the ground. ... Scattering this essence about the land was the final act of the deer's dying heart. (31)

▪ His eyes widened, and he looked at the others anxiously. "We gotta find that gun!" he said. (86)

▪ He fanned his hands outwards, instructing them to spread out. (99)

▪ She had learned to read only by the printed words in the few dozen books they'd salvaged from their old reserve, and she had rarely seen anyone use their hands to write letters into words. (105)

▪ "One hundred thousand people," proclaimed J.C., harshly enunciating each syllable. "One hundred thousand people lived in this city. Now they're all gone." (108)

▪ Over those next few days after Gibson, in the evenings before dark, Evan, Cal, Nongohns, and J.C. formulated the route they'd take when they brought the others down, fixing in their memory landmarks, the time between stops, hazardous terrain to be avoided, and favourable stops for water, hunting, and shelter. (127)

▪ "We can splint that, no problem," Amber blurted out to break the awkward worry that had befallen them all. (131)

▪ His spirit was getting ready to travel now, Evan told himself, so it was their duty to help prepare him for the next world. (143)

▪ While the jokes seemed harsh at first, the elderly joshing was familiar, and helped her relax in this new setting with strangers. (177-8)

▪ "If you shot him in the back," Cal went on, "why should we trust you?" (225)

▪ "These trees give the breath of our ancestors back to us. This river returns the water that kept them alive. We have to carry that with us, follow the path." (262)

Last Message to a Distant Lover

His bottom lip trembled. "Tell her that I'm back with Mother Earth. That I've been returned. That I live on in the land. I'll be here forever. And I'll be with her, and all of you, as long as your hearts beat strongly. Tell her I was full of love, and happiness, even though my life was over. That I didn't regret nothing. Tell her that I was smiling." (139)

Tess Gerritsen. The Spy Coast. Thomas & Mercer, 2023.

Not your usual spy novel ... if there is a "usual." Like all good mysteries, it takes a while for the initial pieces to assemble for the reader. Diana Ward is ex-CIA, retired to a comfortable Paris apartment—and someone is trying to kill her. Maggie Bird is ex-CIA, retired to a chicken farm in Purity, Maine—and someone is trying to kill her. Years ago Maggie had served under Diana's direction on a mission with a third agent, Gavin. All were professionals and didn't even particularly like each other. Operation Cyrano's purpose in Malta was to unmask and capture a traitor involved in the murky world of arms dealing. Maggie's peaceful adopted village is also home for other retired CIA personnel, notably Declan Rose who has been a long-time associate and friend. Police officer Jo Thibodeau is unaware of their backgrounds, but she's on full alert when murder and kidnapping invade her domain.

Mainly it's Maggie's story, her duplicitous past, that influenced today's attacks—who wants her dead, and why. She needs to find Diana who is in hiding; what went wrong in Operation Cyrano that she doesn't know about? One huge sorrow overshadows Maggie: that Danny, the love of her life, was taken from her in Malta. It's dangerous for an agent to become emotionally invested with anyone. But Danny, a medical doctor, moved in circles of financial power, and unwittingly assisted the capture of Cyrano. A normal life is rarely in the cards for spooks.

Gerritsen has fashioned a remarkable thriller, spinning breathlessly between the present and the past, from exotic locations to rural Maine. More Gerritsen is definitely in order!

Jo

▪ What was really not right was the fact that she, the acting police chief of Purity, had been sidelined from the investigation of a murder that had happened in her own hometown. (72)

Maggie

▪ Now I'm so accustomed to being a small-town chicken farmer that I've started to believe that's all I am. (18)

▪ It's what we've all been trained to do, cultivating assets the way you grow a garden, nurturing and watering them until it's time for the harvest. (88)

▪ I pause, searching for words to describe how Diana lit the tinder that destroyed my career. My life. (91)

▪ Danny makes me feel like a younger, freer version of myself, before I was forced to grow up. (97)

▪ I've read his dossier, and I know what he's done. I know what he is. My fate rests in his not knowing who I am. (145)

▪ I have to remind myself that I'm not here to be her friend. I'm here to use her, to take advantage of her, and then to walk away. (190)

▪ The longer I keep up this double life, the more likely the truth will spill out, and when it does, he will doubt our marriage was ever genuine, will assume it was just a convenient fabrication that had nothing to do with love. (207)

▪ There's nothing so sad as three old spies trying to prove they still have what it takes. (269)

▪ I miss the noisy plumbing in my house and the frost on the windows and the sound of my boots crunching through the snow. I miss my chickens. (303)

Diana

▪ Yes, sometimes blood was unnecessarily spilled. She'd made enemies along the way, and some of her colleagues now despised her, but thanks to her efforts, the mission was always accomplished. (2)

▪ The question was, how had her name been leaked? And why, after sixteen years, were they coming after her? (5)

▪ "If they're coming after you because of Malta, then we're all in trouble. Maggie, most of all." (76)

▪ There could be far more damage to come, operational details that should never see the light of day. (80)