Where the Bodies Lie

Lisac’s first foray into fiction, a political crime novel set in an unnamed oil-rich Canadian province, stumbles into some rookie pitfalls. The province is clearly a thinly veiled Alberta, which is a geographic and political landscape Lisac knows well from his years as newspaper reporter, columnist, and author (Alberta Politics Uncovered). In the novel, Lisac renames towns, writes around specific locations, and farcically turns the right-wing Wildrose Party into the Western Wildcat Party. The renaming is awkward and the reasons for it are unclear, since the setting and the party will be obvious to most readers. The story begins when lawyer Harry Asher is hired by his friend Premier Jim Karamanlis to quietly investigate an incident in which a truck-driving cabinet minister struck and killed a member of his local constituency executive. The premier fears it wasn’t an accident. Lisac’s knowledge of the well-oiled political machine that runs Alberta is apparent, but the scandal intended to drive the plot forward is insufficiently scandalous (though perhaps it is perfectly Canadian in that regard). The book is full of exposition that squeezes out plot and dialogue, and the pace is further slowed by frequent descriptions of scenery that don’t always add to the story. (Apr.)