Dead in the Water: An Anthology of Canadian Mystery Fiction

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

All that one needs to read, to suspect that the 20 writers in this
anthology of crime and mystery are masters of their craft, is Linwood
Barclay’s foreword. She writes: “Water. It’s where the bad guys
toss their guns. It’s where the mob dumps your body, after first
fitting you for a pair of concrete goloshes.” Moreover, water is
archetypically Canadian: “It figures in our history, our commerce, our
art, our literature.” Co-editor Therese Greenwood lived beside water
as she was growing up, and realized that it was the perfect place to
make a murder look like an innocent mishap, to hide secrets, and to
provide an avenue of escape. Her settings and plots go hand in glove.

The title story, “Dead in the Water” by Dennis Richard Murphy, is
set in Ontario’s Algonquin Park. It was inspired by the myths that
surround the death of Tom Thompson, who drowned there in 1917 and later
became famous as a painter. His guide believes that he had taught
Thomson all he knew of woodcraft and paddling, and that the ungrateful
painter never acknowledged the important part his guide had played.

“Undercurrents” by Bev Panasky also has a rural setting, this one
in northern Manitoba in the fall. Lizzie Wolanski, the narrator, thinks
of her husband, Paul, as bright and golden on the surface while “dark
shapes [lurk] beneath.” His rude taunts have turned to slaps, then
threats. The narrator finds strange footsteps outside her isolated
cottage, and later is confronted by a woman with a knife. Panofsky’s
neat, tight plot will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the
last page.

Dead in the Water includes a history of Algonquin Park from 1900.
Several of the strong character portraits focus on the power of jealousy
to gnaw at a man’s soul: witness Shakespeare’s Iago. This collection
makes great reading for crime fiction lovers who have strong nerves.