Whodunit Book Club - July 28, 2009

We were honoured tonight to have the author of this month's selection visit our Whodunit meeting. Eugene Meese was a delight! He regaled us with some of the background preparation and notes that he used as 'fodder' for his debut mystery novel, "A Magpie's smile". Members of the club asked lots of questions, and it was generally agreed that everyone enjoyed the book. (That doesn't often happen).
It seemed quite obvious that there were two protagonists of the book. One the policeman Jake Fry and the other the city of Calgary.
Written with a keen sense of place and time, the novel was painstakingly researched even down to what the weather was on any one of the eight days in May 1977 in which the book was set. Eugene Meese lived in Calgary during that period and took copious notes on all of the news stories of the time. He employed a storyboard to aid in the chronological structure of the novel.
All of the characters in the novel, both primary and secondary, were fully rounded out. The detail was sharp but not monotonous. The sights and smells came through with deftly placed words that evoked a sense of place not often found in first novels.
Mr. Meese assured us that "A Magpie's smile" is a stand-alone novel. He did say however that he has an idea for a series 'in the works' set on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia during the 1990s. He is also exploring the idea for a historical novel set in 1920s Romania.
This photo was taken this evening at club.
If you were not one of the lucky ones who attended tonight's meeting, you can listen to Eugene Meese by following the links found here.
The blurb from the back cover reads: "When the scalped remains of a Jane Doe are discovered within the rubble of a demolished house, Detective Jake Fry is assigned the task of hunting down Calgary's most disturbed murderer. Working against a rising body count and police department politics, Fry must relentlessly pursue a murderer with an agenda no one but he can comprehend. During Calgary's first economic boom, people flocked from all corners of the country to the city rumored to have streets paved in gold. Explore the dark side of this boom in "A Magpie's Smile", a tautly chronological police thriller and cinematic portrait of the frenetic Calgary of the 1970s."