Death's Golden Whisper

Henry G. MacLeod teaches sociology at both Trent University and the
University of Waterloo.

Death’s Golden Whisper is the first in a promising new series of
murder mysteries. Meg Harris, along with her large but wimpy poodle, has
fled an unfaithful and abusive husband in Toronto to live in the remote
wilderness of western Quebec. Her only neighbour is the Fishhook
Algonquin (or Migiskan Anishinabeg) Reserve. She lives in a house on
Three Deer Point that was built by her great-grandfather and left to her
by her great-aunt Agatha. Several mysteries are triggered by the arrival
of two float planes belonging to CanacGold, a mining operation hoping to
find gold on Whispers Island, a place sacred to the Migiskan. Her friend
Marie Whiteduck, an Algonquian, disappears after urging Meg to get rid
of these new arrivals.

Meg joins forces with her romantic interest, Eric Odjik, chief of the
Migiskan, to fight the mining company and to find Marie. The mine splits
the Migiskan band into two opposing forces: those hoping for an escape
from poverty and those wanting to save the “island where the tall
trees stand.” When Marie’s husband is found murdered, suspicion
falls on the abused wife. But when Marie is also found dead, the police
dismiss it as a murder–suicide. Meg is not convinced and wonders if
the murders are connected to the island development.

Harlick effectively captures the tensions within the English-Canadian,
First Nations, and French-Canadian cultures, as well as life in an
isolated community. The story starts slowly but builds to a dramatic
conclusion as Meg learns the secrets of her aunt’s life and confronts
the murderer.