The Night Bell - Inger Ash Wolfe

I have been eagerly awaiting the fourth book in Inger Ash Wolfe's fantastic Hazel Micallef series - The Night Bell. I got my hands on a copy - and devoured it in two days. I will now be eagerly awaiting the fifth book!

The Night Bell takes us back to Port Dundas, Ontario and Inspector Micallef of the Ontario Police Service.

Wolfe employs one of my favourite narrative techniques in The Night Bell - past and present - with the resolution coming as the storylines finally fit together in the end.

We meet young Hazel in 1957 and get a glimpse into an unsolved crime from those days -  the disappearance of a young Port Dundas girl. We also meet Hazel's adopted brother and get to see Hazel's mother Emily in her prime. (I really enjoy Emily's wicked sense of humour and caustic one-off's.) The present is 2007. Bones are found on a housing development site - are they human? Two residents of that housing enclave are found brutally butchered and a cop goes missing - or was he taken? And Hazel is told to back off, as the RCMP come in and take over the case.

Well, that's like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Hazel's temperament and drive simply won't let her accept that order. She's obstinate, intelligent, tenacious and not the easiest person to get along with. Hazel finds some wiggle room in the order and begins investigating the bones case on her own - with help from still recovering Sergeant James Wingate. Where that investigation takes them is a page ripped from today's newspaper headlines. As are the political machinations amongst the varying police forces.

New faces and old populate the pages of The Night Bell. The mysteries in Wolfe's books are always well-plotted, engaging and intriguing. But, it is the characters that have captured me. Wolfe pulls no punches in their personal lives - I'm both hopeful and worried about what the next book will bring. Hazel is nearing retirement age - but I really don't want to see the end of this series. I also enjoy the 'local' settings of Ontario, Toronto and the mythical but very vivid in my mind, Port Dundas.

This is such a fantastic series! Although you could read The Night Bell as a stand-alone, do yourself a favour and start from the beginning with The Calling. Read an excerpt of The Night Bell.

Genesis - Bernard Beckett

Genesis is the eighth book from New Zealand author Bernard Beckett.

The year is 2075 and the place is The Republic. The Republic is an isolated island completely cut off from the rest of the world - if it still exists. The island survived due to the machinations of The Academy. This body controls the lives of the people of The Republic. They guard against the five great threats to order: "Impurity of Breeding, Impurity of Thought, Indulgence of the Individual, Commerce, and the Outsider."

Young Anax is taking her oral history exam in front of the Examiners from The Academy. She has prepared for many years in her topic - the life and times of Adam Forde. Forde defied the rules and rescued a girl from the sea and his defiance shaped the future of Anax's world.

This slim book takes place over the course of Anax's five hour exam. Everything she thought she knew and believed is challenged by the Examiners. She has not been given all of the history, some has been held back.

Using oral history and holograms, we follow the life of Ford. The Examiners questions Anax's interpretation of that history. The philosophical questions posed are absolutely fascinating. Beckett presents arguements that make perfect sense, but will challenge your belief system. What does it mean to be human?

I don't want to give too much away, but looking at the cover will give you an idea - a human and a robot. The ending provides a great twist, although I did see it coming.

It wasn't until I finished this small novel (185 pages) that I realized it is marketed as a young adult novel. Personally, I think it would only appeal to the older YA crowd. It is strictly dialogue and thought driven, with no action. Not my usual type of read, but I did enjoy it and found the ideas presented thought provoking. The publisher's blurb refers to it as "this generation's Brave New World."

The Taken - Inger Ash Wolfe

Well you may remember me raving about Inger Ash Wolfe's first book - The Calling. (If not - here's my review) Trust me - I raved and I've been waiting for the sequel.

The Taken again features OPS (Ontario Police Services) Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef. When the novel opens we find her recovering from surgery for the back injury that plagued her in the last book. Hazel is recuperating in her ex-husband Andrew's basement, likes her pain medication a little too much and has Andrew's new wife looking after her.

Second in command Detective Constable James Wingate comes to visit her and to try to entice her back to work. The local paper is running it's annual serialized summer novel. This year the story starts off with a body literally fished out of the lake. But the local detachment gets an actual call - local fisherman have reported a body snagged on their lines. When the body is recovered, a cryptic clue leads to yet another puzzle. And the next part of the serialized novel isn't so fictional any longer.

Micallef is pulled back into heading up the Port Dundas detachment. Is she really solving the case or is she being led along the path a killer wants her to take?

The plotting is intricate and devious. Just when I thought I had things figured out, the story takes yet another unexpected twist and changes yet again. I love it when I can't solve the crime!

What I love just as much is the character of Micallef. She is an utterly original protagonist. Sixty two years old, irascible, still in love with her ex, battling addiction, dedicated and a heck of a cop. She follows her intuition, not always the rules. Sometimes that's not the best decision.

"She realized she had accepted this, no matter the danger it posed her, or the rules it broke. Her hunger to know the rest of the story was greater than her sense of self-preservation."

Just a fantastic read - even better that it's set in Canada. How fun to read and relate to Timmy's double doubles, Loblaws and G2 licences!

Another page turner, one that I devoured in two days.....I'll be waiting for number three.......
Highly recommended and a five star read for me.

*** Shortcovers is offering a free download of The Calling until November 17th!***

No Impact Man - Colin Beavan

~The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process~

It is an unseasonably warm day in winter in New York City - it should be 30 degrees but it's 70. Colin Beavan has been thinking about the state of the world but " I didn't feel I could do anything about world problems. After all, if the government wasn't doing anything, what could I do?" But he suddenly realizes "that my problem might not actually be the state of the world. My problem was my inaction." "Is it true that a guy like me can't make a difference?"

And so No Impact Man is 'born'. His goal? "To find a way to encourage a society that emphasizes a little less self-indulgence and a little more kindness to one another and the planet." With his wife and young daughter he vows to live for a year creating and causing as little environmental impact as possible.

No Impact Man chronicles a year in which Beavan and his family forgo making any trash, eat only locally produced food, reducing their carbon footprint - no planes, trains or automobiles, not buying anything new and finally doing without electricity.

It's a fascinating look at what our lifestyles are doing, to both the planet and ourselves. Do we really need all that stuff? When the simpler things in life make us happy, why do we not pursue them more?

Beavan succeeded in reducing his impact, but also discovered the simple joys of family and friends all over again, without the distraction of television. Eating together, board games, books and spending time outside replaced hours spent in front of the television. " The rhythm of our lives is changing." " I cannot stop wondering, since life is so precious, whether we all share a tendency to waste our lives - and therefore out planetary resources - on things that just aren't important."

Although the book chronicles his experiences, it is backed up with tons of facts and figures to support his ideas - some of it quite eye opening. The appendix is especially packed with resources.

His experiment caught the eye of world media and ended up being a documentary film as well. Is he still at it? What concessions, if any, were made after the year was up? Well, you can check out his blog, find him on Twitter and on Facebook.

No Impact Man was published on "100% post-consumer recycled without chlorine and certified by both the Forest Stewardship council and EcoLogo. The cover boards are also made from 100% recycled and FSC-certified materials, the book is bound with cloth made of FSC-certified paper and the printer itself is FSC-certified.

Guaranteed to engender lots of thought! There's also a reading group guide.