Red Rock: A Mystery

Albert Stray is manager of the Port Credit Public Library.

Wayne Tefs is a Winnipeg-based writer. His sixth novel, which is set in
Red Rock, a Northern Ontario mining town, is as much a chronicle of
small-town life as it is a murder mystery. True, there is a brutal
murder, but who, where, when, and how are all known to the reader from
the beginning: Becky, a young wife and mother, is found murdered in her
bedroom, next to her latest lover; her husband Hank is believed to have
done it.

At first, Becky is portrayed as the town’s party girl, killed by a
jealous but ultimately decent, husband. But as the novel proceeds, a
different picture of Becky and Hank starts to emerge. Different
perspectives on the murder are provided by the couple’s 16-year-old
baby-sitter, their teenage neighbor, the town pharmacist (whose
misfortune it is to be gay in a mining town), a surly town cop who
sympathizes with Hank, and a colleague of Becky’s who knows her family
secret (the key to her self-destructive behavior).

Red Rock should be read for its convincing evocation of small-town life
and its characters. Recommended for public library collections.