The Last Good Day: A Joanne Kilbourn Mystery

Geoffrey Cragg is a tenured instructor in the Faculty of Faculty of
Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Set outside Regina in a seemingly idyllic lakeside cottage community
owned by a firm of wealthy lawyers, the latest Joanne Kilbourn mystery
opens with a Canada Day celebration at the lake. As the vacationing
Kilbourn seeks a few quiet minutes in a gazebo, one of the senior
lawyers confesses his remorse and guilt over having forced his romantic
partner to abort their child. By the next morning he is dead, apparently
having driven his car into the lake. In the following days, Kilbourn
becomes intrigued by the identity and fate of his partner, a junior
associate of the firm who supposedly left in haste for a better position
in Vancouver. The more Kilbourn digs, the less plausible the story
becomes, and when she enlists the missing woman’s law school friends
to investigate, it falls apart.

At this point, the action accelerates, uncovering a dark past fuelled
by racism and despair, which casts the cottage community under a pall.
The already strained relationship between Kilbourn and Inspector Alex
Kequahtooway (they had broken up in the previous year) deteriorates
further, as does the latter’s professional standing and mental
well-being. The climax is startling and violent.

As usual, Bowen assembles a complex cast of characters whose pasts
literally comes back to haunt them. Her portrayal of the major
characters is generally deep and convincing. Her portrayal of
Kilbourn’s new romantic interest, Zack Shreve, a paraplegic lawyer, is
less successful, and the distance between Kilbourn and the Inspector
makes it difficult to fully understand his struggles. Caveats aside, The
Last Good Day is a compelling read.