All Mortall Things.

Henry G. MacLeod teaches sociology at both Trent University and the
University of

Waterloo.

All Mortall Things is the third in Maggie Wheeler’s projected four-part series of Lost Villages murder mysteries. Six villages in the Ontario seaway valley were flooded in 1958 to accommodate the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power project and two new towns were developed to replace them. Wheeler uses her mystery stories as a vehicle to explore the impact that relocation had on the lives of the villagers. She does an excellent job of blending history with mystery through a murder in the lost village of Wales in the 50s and one in the new town of Ingleside in 2006.

Through flashbacks to events in 1957, when a young Jerry Strauss was helping Daniel Sterling empty his house prior, to the home being moved to Ingleside, we learn that Sterling, a facially disfigured war hero, has confessed to the murder of Joe Beckett. His former fiancée, Audrey Connelly, had married Beckett, his best friend. His arrest is witnessed by Audrey, the young Strauss, Buck Bradshaw, and Lynn Holmes. Almost 50 years later, Sterling House is a successful bed and breakfast, haunted by a beneficent ghost, and the scene of the Audrey’s murder. The suspects are all at the B & B.

There are also links to the past. Bradshaw, now a freelance journalist, is one of the guests and Holmes, a journalist for the Ottawa Citizen, is camped out front. The investigating officer is Inspector Jerry Strauss. There are a few other storylines and recurring characters, including Farran Mackenzie in pursuit of the ghost sightings.

Wheeler’s novella is a quick and entertaining read and qualifies as a cozy with its intriguing mystery, ghost story, and interesting history of the lost villages.