The Geranium Girls

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.

On a wet June Saturday in Winnipeg’s St. Vital Park, Beryl Kyte
stumbles over a shinbone and finds a woman’s body. In the weeks
following her grisly discovery, Beryl is haunted by the image of
mushrooms sprouting in the dirt that filled the dead woman’s mouth.
When she senses that someone has invaded her yard and house, her anxiety
grows.

Just as Beryl is starting a romantic relationship, a second woman’s
body appears, this time with Chinese elms sprouting in the dirt packed
in her missing eye socket. Beryl shares her fears and suspicions with
her neighbour, Frank Foote, a police investigator introduced in The Rain
Barrel Baby (2002). Foote describes the killer as “a guy with a horror
story inside his head.” As the story unfolds, the reasons for the
killer’s psychosis gradually emerge.

Preston’s third literary mystery is full of everyday local detail
that makes for an effective contrast with the twisted world of the
murderer. In Beryl, Preston has created a smart, albeit reluctant,
sleuth who is motivated as much by her own demons as by a genuine desire
to play detective. The Geranium Girls features authentic dialogue, a
nicely paced narrative, some interesting twists, and a refreshing
absence of the blood and gore that has become a staple of “serial
killer” novels.