Two recently released books by local authors, No Easy Answers by Deanna Lueder and A Black Tie Affair and Other Mystery Stories by Elizabeth Elwood, have used an interesting format. Both are collections of short stories linked by characters and theme. Readers can enjoy them as a novel or in short bursts, one story at a time. There the comparison ends: one book describes the hellish world of social work, the other is an omnibus of puzzlers.
Lueder draws on her own career as a social worker in child protection to chart the path of her character, Lexie Doucette, in No Easy Answers (Women's Press). At a June book launch at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, the Sechelt author was introduced by Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons, formerly a social worker himself, who told the audience that he trusted Lueder "to capture the balance between compassion and circumstance" in her stories. For reasons of confidentiality, no specific case studies were used, yet the stories are universal. Lueder started her job many years ago with a 180-family caseload in rural Saskatchewan that gave her plenty of material.
"You see the same types of cases again and again," Lueder told the audience. Lexie grows up in a prairie household where she takes care of her sister who has been disabled by polio - scenes drawn from Lueder's life. These childhood stories are touching, but it is when Lexie takes on her first real social work challenge that the book begins to hum. Faced with scenarios of neglect, abuse and addiction in the homes she must visit, Lexie's caring heart wants to help the children, many of whom give her nothing but attitude in return. She changes diapers on a baby whose parents are drinking and fighting, knowing that she must apprehend the kids that night. She drives a 14-year-old to her home by court order knowing that the girl will be abused again. Yet, once in a while, there is joy. Lexie marries a childhood sweetheart and is happy, and even happier when she has an affair with her art teacher. She learns to respect her colleagues and evolves into a more complex, better human being.
Lueder's greatest skill is in her use of language: she writes in smooth, polished prose that helps the reader glide through this raw world to a place of greater compassion. We come to feel for social workers and for their clients whose lives must intersect so terribly.
Women's Press, an imprint of Canadian Scholars' Press, is marketing this book to those considering social work. If you are not planning such a career, please don't avoid the book for that reason. It is an engrossing book of stories that will engage any reader.
No Easy Answers is available at local bookstores for $22.95.
A Black Tie Affair is the featured story in Elwood's latest book of nine mystery tales, several of which are set on the Sunshine Coast. Elwood is a part-time resident of Garden Bay; she and husband Hugh are involved in theatre in Burnaby where they create and stage successful puppet shows. Elwood's background as an opera singer provides material for her sleuthing heroine, Philippa Beary, who must resolve many backstage antics, including those that lead to murder.
Philippa stumbles into mysteries with the frequency of that other keen detective, Nancy Drew. In Philippa's world, famous divas throw themselves from castle ramparts still singing one last, long note (The Fall of Tosca), and pantomime performers jealously defend their roles (The Mystery of the Black Widow Twanky). In fact, sometimes Philippa is a little too perfect, too clever, also not unlike Nancy Drew, and one wishes that some fiendish rascal, a Holmesian Moriarty, would outwit her. She even solves mysteries that her police detective brother Richard can't crack and that try the patience of her Scotch-swilling, city councillor father, Bertram Beary, just two of the cast of colourful characters that help to engage the reader. For those who either love or hate dogs, A Political Tail, featuring Bertram struggling with municipal politics, is one of the most humorous stories.
Elwood admits that summers in Garden Bay usually inspire her, and two stories set on the Coast, Through a Lagoon Darkly and A Grim Ferry Tale, are two of her best.
This book of mysteries will be loved by readers of old fashioned, traditional British authors such as Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie. The plots are well conceived, the clues carefully planted, then concealed to all but the most astute reader.
A Black Tie Affair and Other Mystery Stories is self published and available for $15.95 at some local bookstores and through online services: iUniverse.com and Amazon.
