Butterfly Kills-Brenda Chapman

Butterfly Kills

Brenda Chapman

Dundurn, Jan 10 2015, $14.99

https://www.dundurn.com

ISBN: 9781459723146q

In Kingston, Ontario, Queens University student Leah Sampson works the help line.  Her latest twelve hours shift was extremely arduous leaving her with doubts about pursuing a counseling career.  While walking Leah home, her former boyfriend Wolf informs her he accepted a job with the school system, but before starting will be going west for a brief vacation.  After seeing Leah to her apartment, an intruder attacks her.

In a hospital; battered Della Munroe accuses her husband Brian of beating and raping her.  KPD Staff Sergeant Jacques Rouleau and Officer Paul Gunderson investigate the spousal accusation and the Simpson homicide.  Soon Birdtail Reservation aboriginal Detective Kala Stonechild returns from several months incognito in the Ontario wilderness and agrees to temporarily help on both cases even as third case surfaces for the overworked KPD staff.

Twelve years old Dalal Shahan finds the diary of her missing older sibling Nadirah whose family failed to report her disappearance to the police.  The pages contain entries of abuse including plans to force her to marry Mr. Khan.  With Nadirah vanished, her parents substitute her seven year old intellectually disabled sister Meeza to wed Mr. Khan. 

The second Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery (see Cold Mourning) is a tremendous Canadian police procedural with each fascinating investigation well written and brilliantly intertwined.  With excellent police work anchoring the storyline and enhanced by spotlights on the diverse population especially Asian immigrants and Native-Canadians, Brenda Chapman authors a winner.

Harriet Klausner