A Killing Spring

A friend gave me this book when I was visiting and I had never read any of Ms. Bowen's books. A Killing Spring is a great mystery novel. Even though I picked it up in the middle of the series, I got caught up with things quite quickly. Ms. Bowen is a talented writer and she shows she researches her topics well. Set on a university campus, the death of a professor throws Joanna Kilbourne (a fascinating lead character) into the middle of a mystery. I liked this character. She's a down to earth widowed mom with 3 almost different lives--the life of a professor, a mother, and a woman looking for love. The subplots were enjoyable and revealed more of the main character. This is what I personally like to see in a novel-character growth. I am off now to buy book #1 and start from the beginning (which is a bit hard because The Endless Knot looks really good.) A solid mystery and believable characters make for a great read.

The story is so much more than just the events leading up to the solving of the murder and disappearance. There are compelling 'sub-stories' and various surprising events throughout the novel. There are details which give readers insight into politics, university life, racism and abuse. Once again, the main characters are portrayed as extremely likable, which makes it a fun read.

I'm very happy to have discovered this Canadian mystery writer. This mystery is part of a series set in Regina, Saskatchewan. Bowen's "detective" is Joanne Kilbourn, a middle-aged widow who is a political science professor at the Univerity of Regina, and who is raising four children (two at home, two grown). Joanne has an on-again, off-again Ojibway police-detective boyfriend. In the course of the mysteries, you also follow the lives of these characters and their relationships. The plot involves several strands that more or less come together in the end. THe first involves a very unattractive young student who complains that she is being sexually harassed by a popular good-looking student. The second strand involves a professor who has apparently met an accidental death as the result of some perverse activities. The third strand involves vandalism in the university. The fourth strand involves JOanne's best friend's boyfriend -- a complete jerk. Bowen is an English professor and not surprisingly, she writes with great skill: her mysteries have depth, her characters are vivid, and the plots are well-constructed. She describes people and places so well that I can imagine myself in the setting and talking to her characters. All in all, there's plenty to keep the reader interested and turning the pages, and it all comes together satisfactorily in the end. For the reader who likes thoughtful, well-written mysteries (in the manner of Elizabeth George or Deborah Crombie), I highly recommend Gail Bowen in general and this mystery in particular.

A Killing Spring is one in a series featuring Joanne Kilbourn, a Canadian college professor, as the amateur sleuth. There is a nice density to these mysteries: the reader is always aware of Joanne's full life--we see her with her children, her friends, as a political woman (her deceased husband was in politics), as well as with students in and out of the classroom. The mystery itself is good and Joanne's investigation of it quite believable--only at the end does she become improbably active. Gail Bowen is a good writer, and the depth of the mystery and Joanne's life gives the book a rich quality; the final scene is lovely. Joanne does have a romantic relationship with a policeman (as do many female amateur detectives). The policeman is a Native Canadian, and the two must deal with prejudice in this book. Joanne feels she has never before experienced prejudice, an astonishing belief, I thought, for a liberal woman. I highly recommend this mystery.