Seaweed Under Water.

Silas Seaweed, a 40-year-old Coast Salish policeman who drinks too much and is easily influenced by feminine wiles, begins investigating the disappearance of a white woman named Jane Colby after receiving a visit from her mentally challenged daughter, Terry. Though once glamorous, Jane had become a drunken party girl with a suspicious past. Her husband, Neville Robbins, had disappeared 20 years previously and she had been suspected of his murder.

Seaweed’s inquiries lead him out of Victoria to the Mowaht Bay Reserve, where he gets into an altercation with Neville’s brother, Harley (known as Boss and presumed to be a witch), owner of a struggling logging and milling company. Boss sics a trio of thugs on Seaweed; they attempt to shoot him after he jumps into the Bay, but he evades them and is rescued by Boss’s sister, Tess. Tess is a well-dressed Native woman with an insatiable sexual appetite. She attempts to seduce him many times throughout the book, and becomes jealous of one of Seaweed’s colleagues, whom she mistakenly assumes is his girlfriend.

Seaweed uncovers clues that lead him to stolen boats, incestuous movies, and an old logging donkey. He survives two more attempts on his life by the Rollins family and experiences several supernatural occurrences, but eventually succeeds in solving both Jane’s and Neville’s disappearances.

Evans has been criticized for writing from a Coast Salish perspective. His tale weaves in descriptions of Native lore, including Raven imagery and explanations of underwater vision quests, though he includes a disclaimer on the dedication page stating that “depictions of Native mythology and religion are based on ethnological research,” thereby suggesting that they may not accurately represent current beliefs and practices.

The third in the Seaweed series, there are several instances where having read the previous two books would help to provide context for some of the characters and associated commentary. Though somewhat farfetched at times, the story is fast-paced and incorporates enough plot twists to hold the reader’s interest.