Whodunit Book Club - August 25, 2009

Summer book club meeting attendance usually reflects that many are on vacation. We were a small group of a dozen, but very vocal!
The monthly question: What attracts you to your next book?
The answers were varied but mostly boiled down to: Setting, cover, reviews, and referrals by people with similar reading tastes.

The book this month was "The Calling" by Inger Ash Wolfe. Voted one of the Best Mystery Books of 2008 by Publisher's Weekly, much hoopla has been made about this book's author. A pseudonym of a well known North American writer. There have been many speculations including Jane Urquhart, David Adams Richards, Margaret Atwood and many more. We wondered why. Did the author want this title to be considered separate from his/her other works? Did they feel that this was a less 'literary' work than their previous works? An online interview with the author stated that the name Inger Ash Wolfe was chosen to honour a relative of the author's who likes mysteries. Click here to view another online response by Inger Ash Wolfe.
There was some lively discussion about the book's plot and protagonist(s). Some felt that the plot didn't 'ring true' based upon the protagonist's personality. He was not depicted as a true serial killer because initially his victims came to him. They were consenting adults who were terminally ill. However the euthanasia angle fell flat with the terrible act he committed while in Quebec. It was felt that when he desecrated the bodies to mask his compassionate euthanasia, he was eventually corrupted by his own acts and became evil over time.
Whodunit members were disappointed that the character of Hazel Metcalf was not more fully developed as she was flawed and interesting.
Of the twelve members present, seven felt they would like to read the sequel "The taken".