The River Runs Orange.

Lisa Arsenault is a high-school English teacher who is involved in
several ministry campaigns to increase literacy.

Thousand-year-old bones come to light while Meg Harris, the heroine of two previous murder mysteries, is canoeing the river system of west Quebec. They turn out to be a major archaeological find, since they indicate a different ancestry for First Nations peoples than received science had always decreed. A find of such importance can make or break academic careers and, in this case, lead to murder.

Dissension over the bones first breaks out between English and French authorities concerning who should take custody of them. Then the Algonquin tribe on whose ancestral lands the bones were discovered insist that it is sacrilege to remove the bones from the land and they must be reburied immediately. Animosity also erupts between Meg and her Algonquin boyfriend’s family; his daughter thinks the bones should be reburied, Meg thinks they should be analyzed first, and the boyfriend, who is chief of his tribe, sees both sides of the issue. Ultimately, the bones are stolen, there is skulduggery and greed on every level and across nations, there’s a jailbreak, an Oka-style roadblock, mysterious illnesses associated with the disinterment of the bones, and the murder of one of the archaeologists.

This novel is firmly entrenched in its geography and geopolitics. The landscape, with its emphasis on canoeing through the waterways, takes centre stage and really is the main “protagonist.” The author’s love for the region is reflected in the evocative descriptive passages. The plot is somewhat far-fetched and only works in the specific context: that of English/French/First Nations politics. Similarly, the murder works in context.

Landscape descriptions are better written than the character parts, which tend to be stereotypical and rather thin. Some of the people tend to act in ways that are inconsistent with what we are supposed to know of their personalities and so they appear unrealistic. Dialogue can be repetitive and stilted.

Readers with an interest in Quebec landscapes and politics will find this an interesting read, but for other murder mystery aficionados it may be a little sparse, certainly not in conflict, but in character development and mainstream themes.