Seaweed on Ice.

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

Silas Seaweed, Coast Salish community cop with the Victoria Police Department, operates out of a storefront office in downtown Victoria, always under scrutiny from his superiors looking for an excuse to shut down the program. In Seaweed on the Street, Seaweed responds to a call at an Oak Bay address where a Native man who has served five years for a murder he allegedly committed there causes a disturbance. Subsequently, Seaweed becomes embroiled in the investigation of the elderly, self-made billionaire owner’s rebellious daughter, who has been missing for more than 20 years. As Seaweed doggedly follows the evidence and handles the false trails deliberately placed in his path, he uncovers a web of betrayal and deceit, a multiple murderer, the existence of a granddaughter, several brushes with death, and the innocence of a man falsely accused and imprisoned.

In Seaweed on Ice the murders of an elderly Jewish immigrant and an elderly woman draw Seaweed into some unexpected discoveries. Old Masters drawings stolen from German Jews during World War II, identity theft and blackmail, rumours of a planned raid of a First Nations archaeological site containing a whaling shrine, four murders, a new romantic interest, and a mystical journey and final farewell to an elderly, respected chief form connections that challenge Seaweed as he searches for truth.

British-born, Evans now lives in Victoria and deliberately chose a Native protagonist, weaving First Nations mythology and mysticism into his narratives. He cautions that the Warrior Reserve featured in the novels does not exist and “depictions of Native mythology and religion are based on ethnological research and do not necessarily reflect the present-day observances and practices of Canada’s West Coast Native people.” Old school and hard-boiled yet thoughtful and spiritual, Seaweed is a well-drawn character whose interpretation of law and order adapts as situations and his personal morality demand. First-person narrative, well-paced prose, plenty of action, and fine descriptions of Victoria and area characterize the entertaining novels. A third Seaweed instalment, Seaweed Under Water, will be published in fall of 2007.