Ginny Wood reviewed The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard
Review of 'The Peacekeeper' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Blazingly creative, deeply moving
In a small port town in a modern-day, never-colonized Ashinaabe nation, two murders rip apart two families, revealing rot at the core. Family secrets and redemption are tired tropes in mystery novels and when I'm looking for something to read and see a book blurbed that way, I tend to roll my eyes and move on. That would be a real mistake with this one.
In Blanchard's hands, there's nothing trite, superficial, or syrupy about it. The ethical choices that Chibenashi faces are complex, the waters of his reasoning muddied by shame, love, conflicting duties, and guilt. The very term "Peacekeeper", both Chibenashi's job and his role in the family, assumes layered and conflicting meanings over time. And the redemption he strives for offers hope of rebirth and renewal to the reader as well. It is this, not the question of whodunit, that makes the book …
Blazingly creative, deeply moving
In a small port town in a modern-day, never-colonized Ashinaabe nation, two murders rip apart two families, revealing rot at the core. Family secrets and redemption are tired tropes in mystery novels and when I'm looking for something to read and see a book blurbed that way, I tend to roll my eyes and move on. That would be a real mistake with this one.
In Blanchard's hands, there's nothing trite, superficial, or syrupy about it. The ethical choices that Chibenashi faces are complex, the waters of his reasoning muddied by shame, love, conflicting duties, and guilt. The very term "Peacekeeper", both Chibenashi's job and his role in the family, assumes layered and conflicting meanings over time. And the redemption he strives for offers hope of rebirth and renewal to the reader as well. It is this, not the question of whodunit, that makes the book a page-turner.
