The Unlocking Season

July 6, 2020
Arthur Ellis Award winner Bowen’s appealing 19th mystery featuring Regina, Saskatchewan, political science professor Joanne Kilbourn-Shreve (after 2018’s A Darkness of the Heart) finds Joanne producing Sisters and Strangers, “a six-part TV series based on the tangled relationships” of her family. In particular, the series focuses on Douglas Ellard, who raised Joanne, and his lifelong friend, artist Desmond Love, who was Joanne’s biological father. Outdoor shots are being filmed at Emma Lake, where scriptwriter Roy Brodnitz goes missing and is later found in “a state of mortal terror.” Much of the action centers on the difficulty in completing the script after Roy dies of a suspected heart attack. Speculation builds that Roy was murdered to sabotage the production, and then a fire breaks out at the production studio. Amid the mayhem, Joanne finds time to enjoy the company of her extended family and friends. Bowen creates fully rounded characters to serve her well-crafted plot. This long-running series shows no sign of losing steam.

July 15, 2020
The production of a TV series chronicling a real-life murder in Joanne Kilbourn-Shreve's family is a fertile ground for conflicts magnified by a shocking death. The six parts of Sisters and Strangers promise to dramatize the story of family and murder that Joanne has worked to uncover since a fateful summer many years ago. The tone is established by the powerful voice of writer Roy Brodnitz, who's working with Joanne to ensure the script reflects not just the events, but the relationships driving them. Joanne and her husband, Zack, are both part of the Sisters and Strangers production company Living Skies, which also includes their daughter, Taylor, and Taylor's partner, Vale, an incandescent young woman perfect for the part of Joanne's friend Sally. Happy to begin a project that brings Taylor and Vale to their home in Regina, Joanne is horrified when she learns that Roy has had a mental break while scouting locations in Saskatchewan. Terrified and incoherent after separating from the rest of the crew, Roy doesn't even recognize his colleague and lifelong friend Ainsley Blair. When Roy dies soon after, Joanne hopes to press on with the shooting schedule, though she wonders what truly happened to Roy and who on the set might be involved. Things get even iffier when Ainsley brings in outsider Buzz Wells as a script doctor and new executive producer. It seems as though Joanne's story will still be told, but how? Newcomers to Bowen's series may be overwhelmed by the exhaustive detail and the interest in characters' stories over time.

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