Customer Reviews

Grizzly Lies: A Mystery Novel

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Until her landlord's body is found beneath the gazebo, freelance journalist Hellie MacConnell's biggest worry is the tourists baiting an irate elk on the lawn. The former happens frequently in the beautiful mountain resort town of Banff, Alberta; the latter is unusual enough that the RCMP sends for a special crimes unit from Calgary. Is it murder or did 'Doc's' old heart simply give out? Why was Doc in Banff at all when he should have been in deepest Africa? Inheriting the house along with oddball environmentalist Arthur, who lives on the property, Hellie must unearth dead loves and buried lies if she is to clear both their names. But Arthur, a noted save-the-grizzlies crusader, has disappeared, leaving butchered bear paws in his cabin.

Meanwhile, anti-hunting protesters rally against a much-publicized auction for a mountain-sheep license. Developers try to drive a wedge between the town and the National Parks bureaucracy that limits its growth. The eternal winter ski-bum party gears up with the usual hard drinking and soft drugs. Between following Arthur's sketchy trail and dodging those gate-crashing bores from the fudge shop, Hellie must interview the publicity-shy winner of the sheep auction, a Texas millionaire whose killing history leads back to the same region of Africa where Doc first met Arthur. To top it all off, a family crisis is flaring up back East. Hunting guides clash with protesters, Arthur's alibi is unstable at best, and somebody seems able to enter Hellie's house unseen, day or night. It's inevitable that she'll find herself staring at the small end of a gun; the only question is, whose?

The pace builds steadily, the heroine's troubles become our own, and the varied mountain landscapes are aptly and beautifully integrated into the changing moods of the story. The writing lifts to occasional flights of enchanting whimsy, as when 'two black crows sailed past like a nasty joke,' or 'dreamy light settled in like dust.' 'Grizzly Lies' is a solid sophomore outing for Eileen Coughlan, whose first novel, 'Dying by Degrees', was short-listed for the 2001 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.

"People in this town have secrets," says a character in Grizzly Lies. That is an understatement. Banff, Alberta, the beautiful mountain resort village set in the Rocky Mountains, is the setting for this intriguing mystery. The convergence of locals, international hunters, and even African Safari guides provides and interesting mix of people, with divergent agendas all brought together in this small town where they cannot avoid bumping into each other.

The author crafts a tight mystery, keeping you guessing until the very end, but expertly winds in a loving description of the area that gives you the urge to visit and a poignant message on conservation and what is happening to our wildlife - without the preaching that normally follows a message like that. As with a good novel, you are left to decide what the message means to you.

The author writes beautifully, and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good mystery set in a very interesting location.

Eileen Coughlan lives in Calgary, Canada. She is a freelance writer, but also teaches, and her first novel, DYING BY DEGREES, was included in college-level reading lists. This novel garnered a spot of McNally Robinson's list of "Top Twenty Bestsellers of 2005," was short-listed for the 2001 Arthur Ellis Award, and made it as a semifinalist for the 1999 Robertson Davies/Chapters Award. Eileen also publishes short stories and feature articles.

Hellie MacConnell is the stereotypical "runaway bride," but not because she got cold feet. She escapes from the clutches of a controlling upper-class family and makes her way to Banff, where acquaintances hook her up with a long-lost uncle. Just as Hellie is beginning to recover from the trauma of finding of erstwhile fiance in a clutch with her younger brother, Hellie finds her now beloved uncle dead on his property. His dear friend who occupies a cabin on the land has vanished, and suspicion naturally falls on him...and Hellie. Hellie has also been assigned to write an article on big-game hunting, and the hunter from Texas has a bone to pick with her family:

"'At first they didn't take Ansel seriously. Then he went to Arthur's group and convinced them that Arthur was directly responsible for his wife and child's death. It wasn't a difficult task. Some of the SEP leaders were on the anti- hunting side of things anyway, and they were only too happy to get rid of Arthur.

Also, Arthur was in favor of selling stockpiled ivory in countries that had a healthy elephant population. Arthur, as you well know, cannot abide waste.

The group was dead set against it. So, politically, the timing was perfect. And...weapons were discovered concealed within medical supplies at Michael's clinic.'"

Coughlan does an excellent job on this psychological, ecological, brain-twisting whodunit. The road to the solution of the mystery is fraught with peril, much to the reader's delight. Characters jump out from the page to invade the psyche. Hellie MacConnell is a great heroine, with all the trappings. And Banff provides the perfect

backdrop for this mystery that instructs the reader regarding the problems with poaching and big-game hunting. It is just a perfect read, with a love triangle thrown in for fun.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

Really enjoyed the storyline, the setting, and the main characters. Let's have more adventures with Hellie.