2006 Canadian Book Review Annual

3110 Wheeler, Maggie. The Brother of Sleep. Renfrew: General Store Publishing House, 2004. 236p. $24.95pa. ISBN 1-894263-91-Xpa. CCIP. DDC C813'.6.

Maggie Wheeler’s second St. Lawrence Seaway mystery interweaves two old murders with contemporary events in the life of Dr. Farran Mackenzie, a history professor at the University of Waterloo.

As the 30th anniversary of the death of Sergeant John Perry in the line of duty approaches, Farran’s long-lost childhood best friend re-enters her life. Alison Perry wants her estranged friend to help her find out who murdered her father in Cambridge, Ontario, in 1973. Several people, including Alison, have recently received notes claiming that John Perry was killed by friendly fire. Early in their investigation, John’s former partner, Dave Carlson, is killed by a car bomb that was possibly intended for Alison. To prevent further attempts, Farran and Alison head for the safety of the lost villages of the St. Lawrence Seaway where Farran rediscovered her family’s past in Wheeler’s previous mystery, A Violent End. Six villages in the Ontario seaway valley were flooded on July 1, 1958, because of the construction of the Robert H. Saunders–Robert M. Moses hydroelectric power dam.

The second mystery involves the murder of Garnet Munroe in the summer of 1958. Although she was acquitted, suspicion still remains on his wife, Sheila Pierce, who subsequently married one of the hydro project engineers, Charles Vaughn, and left the area. A chance meeting in the local cemetery with Paul Vaughn, a police officer from Newfoundland and the son of Sheila and Charles, results in Farran investigating another cold case.

Wheeler does an excellent job of blending the book’s intriguing mysteries with a fascinating piece of Canadian history. The Brother of Sleep hold the reader’s attention from start to finish.

Henry G. MacLeod

The Brother of Sleep is published by General Store Publishing, Renfrew, Ontario.