October 20, 2014
Former newspaper columnist McBride (Dandelions Help) has written a debut that is a compelling exploration of a family’s grief after the 11-year-old daughter is brutally sexually assaulted and then murdered. In an author’s note, McBride explains that the book was inspired by a crime that touched her own family in 1986 when the friend of one of her young daughters was similarly attacked and slain. The novel follows the Warne family, who live a life of privilege and relative innocence in the mid ’80s in an undisclosed North American city. Their lives are shattered the day the oldest daughter, Lizbett, fails to come home from a trip to the local library. Told from various points of view—including Lizbett’s mother and father, her sister, other characters connected to the family, and, disturbingly, the murderer, Melvyn Searle, who goes on to murder another girl—it is graphic, heart- and gut-wrenching reading, yet also about love and grief, motivation and healing, and the endurance of family and the human spirit.
October 31, 2011
In Russell’s worthy sequel to 2006’s Deadly Lessons, an Arthur Ellis Award finalist, Vancouver lawyer–turned–teacher Winston Patrick must use his legal experience to help Tim Morgan, a high school student barred from bringing his same-sex partner to the prom. The lawsuit and publicity that follow bring disapproval from Winston’s superiors and harassment from gay bashers for both Tim and Winston. Worse, an unknown assailant savagely beats Tim, who later dies in a suspicious car crash. A potential target himself, Winston begins a personal investigation, only to discover that Tim had a private life he never suspected. The initially straightforward plot takes a number of surprising twists, which suggest that a simple, reprehensible hate crime may be something else entirely. Russell artfully lets Winston’s own words paint Winston as a bit self-righteous, prickly, and less discerning than Winston believes himself to be.