cover image Old Wounds

Old Wounds

Nora Kelly. Poisoned Pen Press, $12.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-890208-25-7

Already the winner of the 1999 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel, bestowed by the Crime Writers of Canada, Kelly's fourth Gillian Adams novel is a richly rewarding story of old wounds opened, probed and ultimately healed. Gillian, a historian, has given up her plans to spend her sabbatical in London with her longtime lover, English cop Edward Gisborne, in order to care for her aging mother, whose heart is failing. Living again in the Hudson River Valley home of her adolescence, Gillian keeps her hand in the academic game by serving as a guest lecturer at nearby Stanton College. The all-female institution seems serene on the outside, like its pastoral setting, but the murder of a promising young student roils the calm. Startling revelations about the girl's double life muddy the waters even further. Gillian, probing into this mystery, is disturbed by the direction her investigation is taking, because it involves friends from her childhood. Eventually Gillian uncovers the ugly truth at the heart of the crime. Kelly writes with compassion and sensitivity about the role reversal of adult children caring for terminally ill parents, as Gillian delves into the past in order to come to terms with the present and with her immediate future. (Dec.)