Novels No. 128

 

Don Gillmor. Cherry Beach. Ontario: Biblioasis, 2026.

A storied spot in Toronto—the words “Cherry Beach” invoke the go-to place where some police would haul suspects to force criminal confessions. Detectives Abel and Davis are on the murder case of two teenage girls. Angela Blair and Dashika Moore were found slain in the Blair apartment; star athletes on the high school track team, they’d planned to lunch together. Dash was preparing to head for university on a scholarship. Her sometime boyfriend Delroy Staples, from a Jamaican immigrant family, is being sought but he’s in hiding. The killing of a trans prostitute called Infinity falls to old-school detectives Lloyd and Maxwell but Abel takes an interest, knowing his colleagues will virtually ignore the case. In fact, Abel is following the complicated trails of numerous cases at the same time.

The author deals pointedly with city tensions around immigrants and crime, and problem police officers. It’s a city that’s experiencing the humiliation of a (fictional) misogynist, racist, drug-addicted mayor. The two young murdered women are the biggest murder case in years, going unsolved for weeks, police being hammered by the media. While the police force wants to appear diverse (Davis is Black), racism is a fact of Black life. Gillmor spares no invective for social inequalities, seen through Abel’s amazing range of daily drama—muggers, con men, carjackers, domestic violence, hookers, graffiti painters, frightened innocents, and the privilege of wealth. And a sinister long-range plan is uncovered. Seeing my own city, my own police division, so full of crime – both petty and serious – is eye-opening. Any hyperbole here?

Abel finds the guilty parties and it’s not pretty. Yet we also witness the lonely social life of a single cop (a meticulous chef, no less). Gillmor’s knowledge of police routine and political malfeasance is impressive. So is his writing that moves nimbly between street talk and lyrical heights. Highly recommended!

Musings

▪ “Fourteen stab wounds on the Black girl. Can’t tell which one came first. White one stabbed twice.” (5)

▪ The next morning’s headlines read TORONTO COP SEARCHES FOR JAMAICAN KILLER. (31)

▪ There were still lapsed Methodists who had clout, but real estate was the city’s one true religion. (67)

▪ “We live in a city of seven million that is allegedly the most multicultural in the world and has fewer murders than Lubbock, Texas, and right now we’re living in a Spike Lee film and you need to widen your perspective.” (74)

▪ If you took hockey, and married it to the law, its offspring might be the police force. (100)

▪ The police chief is flailing and the division superintendent at 51 is a spineless lump with one foot on the golf course. (147)

▪ Someone was prepared to burn a woman to death to get control of her property. (182)

▪ I should have been bouncing all of this off my partner, but Davis was too busy quietly running for mayor and she’d only tell me that I’d lost sight of what’s important and was chasing the wind while the city was burning. (182)

Nic Stone. Boom Town. USA: Simon & Schuster, 2025.

It became evident by about page 40 that I’d lost any interest in whatever made me choose this novel in the first place. A Black strip club in Atlanta is not only pretty far from my orbit, the vernacular slang is disorienting, the timeline confusing, and the characters opaque. Lyriq and Lucky, aka Micah and Felice, are pole dance partners on stage and otherwise in torrid lust with each other but a white man/club patron appears to be causing a disturbing influence on them. Above all, the constant in-your-face crude and cringy descriptions of their activities just demands NO.

Freida McFadden. Want to Know a Secret? 2021. USA: Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, 2026.

Stay-at-home mom April Masterson finds her son Bobby playing in a new neighbour’s house after a panicky search for him ... because a weird text from an unknown phone taunted her about his whereabouts. April runs a series of YouTube baking videos called “Sweet Secrets” where she’s accustomed to some downright mean comments amid the gushing fans. More weird texts follow, sounding personal – and scary; is her people-pleasing manner hiding something quite different? She’s delighted with neighbour Maria Cooper, manager of a chic clothing boutique. April finds her more copacetic than her so-called BFF Julie, the domineering, judgmental leader of local moms—yet, at moments there’s something off about Maria or her son Owen.

The focus on children’s snits recurs (they all have 7-year-old sons). April constantly distributes cookies and pies to everyone, but hints of trauma in her past pop up; her mom Janet is in long-term care. Plus, she has growing suspicions of husband Elliot’s extra-long office hours and his beautiful receptionist. Gradually we become aware of what seems to be a sneaky campaign to discredit April in every possible way. Then whoa! Julie takes over the narrative to jumble the plot. A former prosecutor who misses her job, Julie discovers a whole new satisfying challenge in the suburbs. Even the children’s snit-fits are significant to the story’s course.

Enough said, this author is an expert in psychological drama, although I did strain a few times over certain actions. Ultimately, perhaps not one of McFadden’s most persuasive.

April

▪ One thing. I do one thing wrong in my entire life, and now I’m being threatened with it. (79)

▪ “She came to the fence and told me you said it was okay for me to come over!” (29)

▪ My cheeks burn. I can’t believe they’re accusing my son of stealing Owen’s toy. (120)

▪ Julie and I are best friends, and if I come over with a peace offering and I explain to her my side of the story (or Bobby’s side), she’ll be reasonable. (167)

▪ “Listen, April. I just don’t think the other women will feel comfortable with you here right now.” (205)

Julie

▪ “Don’t you think there should be a dress code for drop-off and pickup?” (39)

▪ “For goodness’ sake, April, you don’t need to bulldoze the poor guy into eating your food!” (120)

▪ This is going to be my life now. Playgroups for adults. (237)

▪ But then again, is it so wrong that I’m here visiting Janet? The poor woman is demented (or so April proclaimed). (262)

▪ I don’t even realize until I’m driving home how good it feels to be investigating a murder. Ever since I gave up my job at the DA’s office, it was like I have been in some kind of fog. (264)