The Glengarry News,

by Rosemary O’Flaherty

The Lost Villages of the Seaway Valley came to “A Violent End” indeed, both physically and metaphorically. Maggie Wheeler has done an excellent job of creating a fictional murder set against the backdrop of the “Big Bang” in 1958.

As with the title, the book operates on many levels. As a mystery novel, it is more than just “a good read,” it is absolutely riveting. As an historical account, Wheeler has certainly done her homework. As literature, Wheeler’s style and choice of language, nuanced to the history of the Seaway, should please even the severest of literary critics. Having come to the Seaway Valley as a youngster, Wheeler’s familiarity with the history and geography of the region percolates through the story as the mighty St. Lawrence once bubbled through the Long Sault rapids.

Wheeler wastes no time in revealing both story line and historical context. The first chapter recounts the events of July 1958 from the perspective of the main protagonists in the novel. Following her mother’s death, Farran MacKenzie, a history professor at the University of Waterloo, begins the search for a father she never knew. Hikers discover Hal Leonard’s lifeless body, wedged into the foundations of his home in Aultsville, covered, since 1958, by the floodwaters of the Seaway. The intervening 40 years since the murder complicate Farran’s self-appointed task of tracking down her father’s killer. Many of the drama’s players have, by this time, died off or disappeared.  The cold trail leads to a murder site that only looms up from the depths of the St. Lawrence in low-water years. Farran’s investigation quickly runs into trouble as she begins to unravel the tangled web of relationships in the long, lost Aultville.

Wheeler uses the ghostly realm of the submerged Lost Villages to good effect. She builds tension with an ambiance of fear skillfully constructed out of the ephemeral mist hovering over the St. Lawrence, enveloping her characters within the confines of their own private hell. The spectre of now-muted voices whispers along the shore of the river both revealing and obscuring fractured memories that speak to a way of life as lost as Farran’s father and the villages themselves.

Farran’s need to heal her broken and dislocated family fuels her quest for the truth. This is essentially a story of orphans; Farran, her mother, her Uncle Gordon, even the acerbic Detective-Inspector, Jerry Strauss. To eclipse the pain of abandonment, each of the orphans seeks to obliterate their own past. This discovery ultimately leads Farran to question her own value system and express regret at having repeated the cycle in her own life. Superficially a mystery novel, Wheeler uses Hal Leonard’s murder to articulate the primacy of the parent-child bond. From this perspective, Wheeler’s dedication is significant; her parents, her children and Robert, a partner perhaps.

Wheeler provides a one page “Contributors” as a bibliography-cum-source acknowledgment. It would have been nice had she provided a more detailed bibliography for a novel with so much history content. A novel of this calibre will clearly have appeal beyond the Seaway Valley. Wheeler, therefore, might have paid more heed to the old adage, “never assume.” She takes for granted that her audience is familiar with local bits of color like “The Moccasin” without explanation. Her readers, however, may or may never have heard of “The Moccasin,” the little local train that chugged into the villages every evening, their primary link with the outside world. While the title, A Violent End captures the fate of both Hal Leonard and the Lost Villages, it fails to inform, at a casual glance, that the saga of the Lost Villages is central to the story.

Maggie Wheeler continues to reside today in the Seaway Valley with her family. With a degree in English from the university of Ottawa, Maggie’s career includes working as both an editor and a correspondent for local media. Maggie has authored several freelance articles and currently manages her own company in business communications. A Violent End is Wheeler’s first attempt at historical fiction. We certainly hope it will not be her last.

Site last updated June 10, 2008. Copyright © 2001, 2006-08 Maggie Wheeler. All rights reserved.