The Brother of Sleep

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

Maggie Wheeler’s second St. Lawrence Seaway mystery interweaves two
old murders with contemporary events in the life of Dr. Farran
Mackenzie, a history professor at the University of Waterloo.

As the 30th anniversary of the death of Sergeant John Perry in the line
of duty approaches, Farran’s long-lost childhood best friend re-enters
her life. Alison Perry wants her estranged friend to help her find out
who murdered her father in Cambridge, Ontario, in 1973. Several people,
including Alison, have recently received notes claiming that John Perry
was killed by friendly fire. Early in their investigation, John’s
former partner, Dave Carlson, is killed by a car bomb that was possibly
intended for Alison. To prevent further attempts, Farran and Alison head
for the safety of the lost villages of the St. Lawrence Seaway where
Farran rediscovered her family’s past in Wheeler’s previous mystery,
A Violent End. Six villages in the Ontario seaway valley were flooded on
July 1, 1958, because of the construction of the Robert H.
Saunders–Robert M. Moses hydroelectric power dam.

The second mystery involves the murder of Garnet Munroe in the summer
of 1958. Although she was acquitted, suspicion still remains on his
wife, Sheila Pierce, who subsequently married one of the hydro project
engineers, Charles Vaughn, and left the area. A chance meeting in the
local cemetery with Paul Vaughn, a police officer from Newfoundland and
the son of Sheila and Charles, results in Farran investigating another
cold case.

Wheeler does an excellent job of blending the book’s intriguing
mysteries with a fascinating piece of Canadian history. The Brother of
Sleep hold the reader’s attention from start to finish.