Deadly Appearances (Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Gail Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries | Publication Date: April 8, 2000

Andy Boychuk is a successful Saskatchewan politician – until one sweltering August afternoon when the party faithful gather at a picnic. All of the key people in Boychuk’s life – family, friends, enemies – are there. Boychuk steps up to the podium to make a speech, takes a sip of water, and drops dead. Joanne Kilbourn, in her début as Canada’s leading amateur sleuth, is soon on the case, delving into Boychuk’s history. What she finds are a Bible college that’s too good to be true, a woman with a horrifying and secret past, and a murderer who’s about to strike again.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Add Gail Bowen to the growing, long list of Canadians turning out superior mystery stories…Ms. Bowen charms the reader with a compelling heroine, some intriguing side figures and a suitably murky mystery, and combines it all with fine writing and acceptable surprises along the way.”
–The Whig-Standard, Kingston

“In Joanne Kilbourn, Gail Bowen has created a narrator who is bright, thoughtful, wryly entertaining, and warm without being sappy…I found this a very hard book to put down.”
–Gary Draper, Books in Canada

From the Inside Flap

Andy Boychuk is a successful Saskatchewan politician – until one sweltering August afternoon when the party faithful gather at a picnic. All of the key people in Boychuk's life – family, friends, enemies – are there. Boychuk steps up to the podium to make a speech, takes a sip of water, and drops dead. Joanne Kilbourn, in her début as Canada's leading amateur sleuth, is soon on the case, delving into Boychuk's history. What she finds are a Bible college that's too good to be true, a woman with a horrifying and secret past, and a murderer who's about to strike again.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; 2nd Printing edition (April 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0771014910
• ISBN-13: 978-0771014918
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,085,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deadly Appearances, October 4, 2000

By 

Maren Klein (Bassum, Niedersachsen Deutschland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deadly Appearances (Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Bowen's book opens with her protagonist's, Joanne Kilbourne's, second tragic and seemingly senseless loss, this time of her close friend, up-and-coming Regina politician Andy Boychuck. Not long before Joanne lost her husband in an apparently unmotivated violent crime and, therefore, Andy Boychuck's murder by poison hits her hard. To make sense of his death she, as a former political speech writer, decides to write his biography. So she dives into Andy Boychuck's life and uncovers an interesting array of secrets in the lives of their mutual friends, associates and acquaintances.

In the course of her investigations she meets a close friend of Andy's whom she feels an affinity to and whom her children also like. She starts feeling that life might be good after all and that there is a chance for happiness for herself.

But then she gets sick. Repeated visits to doctors cannot determine any physical reasons for her illness and she starts wondering whether she might be going mad.

This is as much as I am going to reveal. Gail Bowen's debut novel is one of the best crime novels ever. It features believable, three-dimensional characters the reader learns to care about. Joanne Kilbourne is the mother-next-door and then she is something rather different because she is capable of seeing a thing she believes in through, no matter what (not that most of us are not). Unlike a hero in a movie, she has her self-doubts and bad moments; when a doctor tells her there is nothing wrong with her physically she assumes - like we all would - it's in her head. But she keeps on doing what she feels necessary. Most of all she is a real person. She has a family and is ensconced in a social network - and Bowen lets us into Joanne's thought processes.

The end is logical - and totally unexpected.

I borrowed Deadly Appearances from my local suburban Australian library in early 1999; since then I have bought all her novels to date and I keep scanning magazines for new ones. My mother-in-law borrowed Deadly Appearances in May 2000; since then she has just requested the next one every single time she's finished one. And if they have been translated into German, they'll make a fantastic present for my mother, my sisters and all of my friends.

And next time I go and visit my sister in Toronto I'll make sure to have a stop-over in Regina to tour Bowen-Country.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book, March 31, 2005

By 

Tania Hutchison (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadly Appearances (Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a fantastic first novel! The plot is excellent and will keep you guessing right up until the end. My favourite aspects of all of Bowen's novels are the characters. They are three-dimensional and very easy to care about, especially Joanne.

There are several sub-plots which deal with her family life which add a nice extra 'layer' to the story. This is definitely not a book to be missed. The novels can be read out of order, but you will get the most out of the characters if you begin with this one and go through the series in chronological order.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, July 22, 2002

By 

Alicia K. Ahlvers "alibrarian" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadly Appearances (Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Joanne Kilbourn is a political science professor and widow of a Canadian politician. After the brutal murder of her husband, she struggles to rebuild her life and raise her three children. Part of her healing process includes working on the campaign of her good friend Andy Boychuck, a rising political star. When he is poisoned at a political rally she decides to write a biography about his life and, of course the secrets she uncovers lead her straight to the murderer. Gail Bowen is one of the premier mystery novelists in Canada and her books have a satisfying blend of character development, description of Canadian life and a puzzle. Several of her books have been made into TV movies in Canada.