Author: Elsie Paul

I’ve know about this book for a long time and I’ve had it on my bookshelf for several months. I think I was putting off reading it because I thought it would be difficult.

Much of it was difficult to read and, at times, it made me very angry. The colonial treatment of our First Nations was horrible. It takes a very special group of indigenous people to forgive us for what was done but none of us should ever forget.

Elsie is in no way judgemental in the book. Her mother was a residential school survivor but from a young age Elsie was raised by her grandparents. Elsie is named after an aunt who was taken to residential school but when she became ill she was sent home and died only a few days later. Elsie spent two years in residential school but her grandparents moved to the bush whenever the scoops were taking place. They only returned to their village after the “quota” of children had been filled.

There is no way to rate this book. I’m going to leave it on my shelf with my other important books.

Author: Andrew Taylor

This book came to me from Deloise. It was on the shelf on Texada and I kept putting off starting it; it’s big and you know the rules. The book is actually three books in one, hence the size of it.

The Last Four Things

The story starts out when Michael and Sally Appleyard’s daughter, Lucy, had been taken. Michael is a Detective Sergeant and Sally is a Deacon in the Church of England. Could the kidnapping be related to either of their professions? There were always those who wanted revenge for an arrest and there were certainly many who did not believe women had a place in the church hierarchy. Shortly before the kidnapping, during Lucy’s first service, an unhinged woman disrupts the sermon with obscene curses. By the end of the book we know who the kidnapper was and the unhinged woman is also identified.

The Judgement of Strangers

In this book, a prequel to the previous one, Michael is a young boy and living with his godfather, David Byfield, for the summer. David is also a minister in the Church of England but is very much opposed to the ordination of women. As a widower, David is raising his daughter, Rosemary, on his own. But when he meets Vanessa he is smitten and the two wed. After a few mysterious animal deaths in the community, and some very un-ministerial conduct on the part of David, Vanessa is murdered by Rosemary during a summer party at the neighbours.

The Office of the Dead

Going even further back, we meet Rosemary (Rosie) as a young girl living with her mother, Janet, and David. Janet’s recently-divorced friend, Wendy, has come to stay with the family while she sorts herself out. Janet’s father, who is slipping deeper and deeper into senility, completes the family living in the house. When David decides that Janet’s father must move to a nursing home the news doesn’t go over well. One morning the father is found dead and it is believed to be suicide. When the police aren’t satisfied with that explanation Janet overdoses on sleeping pills and takes the blame. But was it really her?

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Andrew Taylor

I picked this book up from a free shelf in the waiting room at BC Ferries in Comox as we were returning from Asher’s grad. I had started an electronic book but I wasn’t enjoying it so thought I’d switch to this one.

Two young boys have started a club where they imagine a world set in ancient Rome. They reluctantly add two more players to the core team but the power starts to shift and, eventually, a tragic accident kills one of them. But was it an accident? Many years later the past creeps into the present and one of the boys is searching for answers.

I was able to figure out the mystery shortly before the ending. I found the characters and their relationships to one another confusing; there were siblings, step-siblings, parents, husbands and ex-husbands.

Goodreads Rating: * *

Author: Winston Graham

This is the second book of the Poldark series and covers the time between the birth and death of Demelza and Ross’s daughter, as well as the beginning and end of Ross’s copper smelting endeavour.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *