Jackrabbit Moon

Lynne Perras teaches communication arts at the University of Calgary.

The central characters in Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos’s stunning first
novel are Maggie MacKinnan and Nick and Eileen Mykonos. Maggie, a
37-year-old star reporter at the Montreal Tribune, is assigned to cover
the murder trial of Nick, a young biker, and Eileen, his stripper wife,
who are accused of causing the death of their infant son. As Maggie
investigates the story, she becomes increasingly attracted to Nick.
After the trial, she and Nick embark on an unusual love affair. What
happens to both of them as their worlds collide makes for suspenseful
and thought-provoking reading.

The early years of all three characters are recounted in detail. While
Nick and Eileen share a history of abuse and abandonment, Maggie was
raised in a rigid, strictly religious home from which she has emerged
repressed and closed-off from others. As the novel reaches its climax,
both Maggie and Nick realize how much they have in common despite their
differences: both have created prisons for themselves, and escape and
redemption are possible only after much pain.

Arnopoulos, a journalist and writer for the Montreal Star for many
years, writes with authority about the newspaper world and about the
brutal world of the street from which Nick and Eileen come. An
award-winning writer of nonfiction, she also demonstrates her talent for
generating a well-crafted and gripping story with many twists and turns.
Despite its somewhat far-fetched and overly tidy conclusion, Jackrabbit
Moon is a captivating book.