An Image in the Lake: A Joanne Kilbourn Mystery

Arthur Ellis Award winner Bowen’s winning 20th Joanne Kilbourn mystery (after 2020’s The Unlocking Season) finds the 62-year-old Saskatchewan political science professor and her family looking forward to the premier of Sisters and Strangers, a six-part TV series Joanne cowrote that tells the story of her traumatic teenage years. When two employees of Media Nation, the station producing Sisters and Strangers, are dismissed by the station and later disappear, Joanne, who has a reputation as a sleuth, investigates. Other crises develop. An acquaintance of Joanne’s, a respected businessman, is charged with murder after his difficult wife, the former host of a morning TV show, turns up dead. A cohort of Media Nation interns, notably the nasty step-grandson of the station’s CEO, harass a local politician. The discovery of the body of one of the missing employees raises the stakes as the various plot lines build toward the satisfying climax, a viewing of Sisters and Strangers. Amid the murder and mayhem, Bowen takes time to portray Joanne’s rich life with her loving husband and their grown daughters. Readers will hope she’ll be back soon. (Sept.)