The Fifth Season: A Novel of Suspense

This book should be made into a movie. I've lived in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (the setting for this story) for the past year, and the cinematography alone would make this explode on the big screen. But the book has so much more: it's entertaining to say the least, but it also gave me pause to think about my own values and how I interact with others. Can't ask much more of a book than that. Bredes does a terrific job of providing thorough introductions to his many intriguing characters, concurrently giving us an intimate description of each setting - and amazingly, he does this while keeping up the intense pace that kept me glued to each page. And what characters! You don't have to live in the NEK to recognize some of the peculiarities of these folk, but it helps. And if you find yourself wondering how people can behave this way, consider the movie "Fargo" a few years ago - similar setting, similar quirky personalities. And always, something in just about every character that makes you smile and nod. He does mystery well; things are seldom what we think they are in this story, just as in real life. I frequently found myself identifying with the characters, being drawn down the same paths as they were, and then being as surprised as they were at how events unfolded. I'm a mystery fan and I read this book in less than 24 hours. I started on a Friday night, and was so into the spookiness of it and so cognizant of the setting, that at one point I did a double take - I thought I saw someone moving past my window! This book is the second of two (so far) featuring the same setting and characters - the first is "Cold Comfort". But don't feel you have to read that one first - I didn't, and I never had the feeling that I did not have enough information. This story is complete in itself. On the other hand, I'm eager to read the prequel - just because I had such a good time with this one. Do yourself a favor - wrap yourself around this book ASAP. And write to your favorite producer. This story begs for a film adaptation.

This book was hard to put down. There's a special sense of violation when multiple murders blast a peaceful Vermont village, but as the wise and awful depths of this fast-moving story show us, the seeds of angry violence are always there, here, hiding and waiting to bloom. Constable Hector Bellevance is a big quiet guy who grows organic tomatoes and throws a mean right. He's a one-time Harvard basketball player and short-time Boston cop who just wants to be a nice guy with a pick-up truck and a girlfriend, but he keeps stepping in blood. Through concise vivid details of daily life, Bredes puts the reader swiftly in his reluctant hero's shoes. A few pages into the book I found myself with a couple of victims on my hands and the threat of being killed by my wife because I couldn't get out of The Fifth Season to do my pruning and window-cleaning. A few pages from the end of the book I was sorry it was going to end. When's volume three in the Bellevance saga coming?

When I can read a novel straight through in one or two sittings, something special is going on. I usually like to savor literature, sleep on it, come back to it. But there are novels that simply demand a lot of attention and are worth of every minute of it. THE FIFTH SEASON is one of those novels. As other reviewers have pointed out, Hector Bellevance is really the heart and soul of the book, which is great, since he brings a clear, well-defined, and imminently likeable voice to the narrative. Alongside Bellevance is a cast of characters who are at points quirky, caring, brutal and treacherous-but always human. Bredes skillfully weaves the stories of these Vermonters into a tale that, as my bleary eyes can attest to, pulled me along to its powerfully realized, but devastating, conclusion. That is not to say that FIFTH SEASON is not without its faults. Bellevance at times seems a little too precious, even for a Harvard graduate (did we really need to know about the morning cantaloupe?). Of course, Bredes adds these touches consciously, heightening the tension and contrast between Bellevance and his nemeses, who are decidedly more gritty. In the end, Bredes is a skilled, canny writer, who has managed the rare feat of crafting a truly literary thriller. I look forward to watching Bellevance develop, and can't wait to see what sleepy Tipton has in store next.

Hector Bellevance is an irresistible hero: he is bright, stoical, and attractive; there is a tragic accident in his past about which he behaved honorably; he is divorced and seeing another woman but may still love his former wife. He was terrific in Cold Comfort; he is even more so in The Fifth Season. The Fifth Season has a lot going for it. For one thing, it has a riveting plot, clever and suspenseful and thoroughly satisfying. Second, it has real characters who are vital, believable, and unusual. One of particular interest is Marcel Boisvert, descended from the first Abenaki landholders in the valley in northern Vermont where the novel takes place. Third, it gives the reader a wonderful sense of Vermont, the topography, the customs, the way of life. Hector grew up in Vermont and knows everyone in Tipton. Finally, the language is superb--literate, lovely, and lithe. This is novel everyone will enjoy reading and talking about. In addition to action, it gives the reader lots to think about--and a yen for the next in the series.

I want to say that THE FIFTH SEASON is by far the best detective novel set in New England that I've read since Robert B. Parker's early Spenser novels. But there's a big difference between the two. Don Bredes sets his Hector Bellevance novels among the wild green hills of northern Vermont, in the small town of Tipton, hard by the Canadian border. Bredes's COLD COMFORT (2001) was the first book in what is shaping up to be a really fine series. Hector Bellevance is Tipton's compassionate and reluctant town constable. He's also an ex-Boston PD homicide detective and Crimson hoops star who, after some serious reversals in the big bad city, has left the force and returned to his tranquil Vermont birthplace to grow vegetables for the local farmer's market. This story begins on a Sunday at the height of mud season in April, the first morning in the previous 63 that it hasn't been snowing or raining. It's also Hector's 41st birthday, and as he walks around his farm in the early light opening his coldframes full of seedlings to the sun's rays, he feels completely content with his wholesome life. That doesn't last long. At noon, checking his messages, he learns that the town clerk wants him to serve a relief-from-abuse order on the crusty old town road foreman, Marcel Boisvert, a childhood friend of Hector's father. And Hector's girlfriend, Wilma, the number-one reporter for the local newspapaer, wants him to meet her in the high woods near the border, where the county sheriff has just found a headless, handless body. The sunny day, needless to say, quickly becomes a stressful and troubling one. Then, early the next morning, Hector finds the sheriff and the town clerk shot dead, and the road foreman has disappeared. The surprises that the twisty plot has in store are just delicious. And all of the characters, from Marcel's sullen wife, Shirley, to the geomancer balloon pilot, Hugh Gebbie, to Stephanie McPhetres, the town clerk's dreadlocked, foul-mouthed granddaughter, are convincing and vivid. Their dialogue--and there's a lot of it--is dead-on perfect, too. Most enjoyably, Bredes's writing is sophisticated and yet as clear and clean as spring water. THE FIFTH SEASON isn't just an admirable achievement in contemporary story-telling, it's a real literary gem.