Tumbled Graves

January 18, 2016
The third mystery in Chapman’s Stonechild and Rouleau series centers on the murder of Adele Delaney and the disappearance of her three-year-old daughter, Violet, near Kingston, Ont., but in the course of that suspenseful story line, Chapman (Cold Mourning) also takes readers deeper into the lives and hearts of detective Kala Stonechild and Staff Sgt. Jacques Rouleau. Preoccupied with the fact that his ex-wife, Frances, whom he still loves, has terminal cancer, Jacques asks Kala to lead the investigation. Kala tackles the case with her partner detective, Paul Gundersund, while her home life is focused on a new role as guardian of her 13-year old cousin, Dawn, whose parents are in jail. As the case gets more complicated with twists, including ties to a Montreal biker gang and multiple suspects, so does Kala’s own situation. Jealous girls are causing trouble for Dawn at school, and Kala must show a social worker that Dawn is better off with her than in foster care, all while fending off a reporter who wants to write a story about how she overcame homelessness and alcoholism as a youth to become a First Nations police officer. Richly drawn characters enhance this well-constructed, thoroughly enjoyable whodunit that will leave readers eager for the next installment.

February 15, 2016
The third in the Stonechild and Rouleau mystery series involves a missing mother and child. Jacques Rouleau, of the Kingston, Ontario, Criminal Investigations Division, tasks his subordinates, Kala Stonechild and Paul Gundersund, with the investigation. The mother's body is soon found, but the daughter is still missing. The obvious suspect, the husband, denies having anything to do with it, but Stonechild and Gundersund aren't convinced, until a new lead turns up and takes them into the dead woman's past, uncovering hidden secrets and things that refuse to stay buried. A deft balance of character, story, and setting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)