Truth and Lies

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Readers first met Toronto’s Mike McGill, 15, in Hit and Run (2003), in
which the supposedly accidental death of Mike’s single-parent mother
was proven to be murder. At the book’s conclusion, the orphaned Mike
had gone to live with John Riel, an ex-homicide detective and a history
teacher at Mike’s school. Truth and Lies and Dead and Gone are
sequential sequels to Hit and Run. Although all three books can be read
independently, the experience will be enriched if they are read in
chronological order.

In Truth and Lies, an “outsider” classmate of Mike’s has been
found kicked to death in a local park. When Mike becomes a suspect
because of an earlier altercation with the victim, he can provide an
alibi for the night the murder occurred. However, because aspects of his
alibi are personally embarrassing, Mike elects to lie repeatedly instead
of being completely truthful. The guilty parties also lie and plant
incriminating evidence in Mike’s locker in order to keep suspicion
focused on him.

While the victim and the perpetrators in Truth and Lies are
adolescents, adults play a much more significant role in Dead and Gone.
The discovery of the bones of a murdered man ultimately leads to
Riel’s having to relive the disturbing events surrounding his last
homicide case, the one in which his detective partner was killed and he
was wounded. These happenings, coupled with Riel’s accidentally
shooting a young girl, contributed to his subsequent decision to leave
the police force. McClintock introduces what appears to be a subplot
involving a teenage girl being stalked by an older man, but she
ultimately integrates it smoothly into the major plot line.

Although McClintock’s mysteries incorporate all of the required
elements connected with the genre, such as the necessary suspects and
appropriate misdirection, she shows why she is a multiple Arthur Ellis
Award–winner: her novels consistently exhibit a quality not normally
associated with mysteries—strong character development. Recommended.