The Crime of Ovide Plouffe

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

The fourth novel in the continuing saga of Quebec’s best-known, best-loved family, the Plouffes, is chiefly concerned with the fortunes of Ovide, married now for the past eight years to gorgeous, flighty Rita. She has expensive tastes, which his humble salary as manager of a record store cannot satisfy. Her dissatisfaction and his chagrin threaten the happiness of their home. Then, through a series of odd chances, Ovide becomes involved with a mysterious, somewhat sinister watchmaker. This man, an embittered cripple, offers him a chance to become rich by entering into a chancy partnership. The naive Ovide accepts — and to everyone’s surprise, he does become not only rich, but famous as well. Alas, with wealth comes misery. Rita’s shady past exposes her to blackmail, and Ovide to disgrace. The complex action culminates in the tragedy of a sabotaged airplane; one of the victims is the faithless Rita Plouffe. Ovide is accused of the horrible crime, and the Plouffe family closes ranks to protect him. This fiction, based on the facts of an actual plane crash in Quebec in the late ‘40s, will be welcomed by a legion of devoted readers.