Bill's Best of Fiction for 2021

I will persist in putting together my Best of lists at the end of the calendar year. This post will have Bill’s Best of 2021 Fiction. My next post will have Bill’s Best of 2021 Non-Fiction and a personal category of Bill’s Most Interesting of 2021. The lists do include books published earlier than 2021.

For the best of 2021 fiction:

1.) The Finder by Will Ferguson - I was captivated by the opening set on the southernmost island in Japan where a rare foreign visitor suffers a mysterious death. Hateruma is in the Okinawa chain of islands. On the island are myriad spirits and secret Noro princesses.

The story moves to New Zealand where jaded travel writer, Thomas Rafferty, is caught up in the Christchurch earthquake and the search for the mysterious “Finder” who “finds”, usually by theft, valuable objects and turns a profit on their return to the public world.

Ferguson, a former travel writer, vividly describest the multiple international settings. He never succumbs to Rafferty’s stock phrase of each country he writes about being “a land of contrasts”.

Fascinating characters with rich pasts abound in a great chase.

The Finder was the winner of the Best Canadian Crime Novel in the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence.

2.) The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny - Beyond being glad that Armand Gamache is back in Three Pines after his sojourn a year ago to Paris I was caught up in Penny’s exploration through a mystery novel of the concept of “mercy killings” to benefit society.

The concept of determining statistically who is a burden on society to be eliminated is abhorrent to me. The fictional Professor Abigail Robinson would euthanize the unproductive aged and abort the deformed unborn. She has perverted the pandemic slogan “All be well”.

Gamache defends her right to speak at a local university and then must investigate the murder of Robinson’s assistant at a New Year’s celebration attended by the residents of Three Pines and Robinson. Everyone’s a suspect as she aroses strong emotions.

I was so taken by the book I wrote in addition to my review a pair of posts on “Responding to Evil” and “Considering People” in the context of the book. I cannot recall a crime fiction novel that made me think more than The Madness of Crowds.

3.) Dark August by Katie Tallo - The author was a distinguished screenwriter and director for over two decades and a freelance writer. Dark August is her first novel.

I loved Augusta “Gus” Monet. She was my favourite new sleuth of 2021. Orphaned at 8 she was in a boarding school from 10-18. Personally knowing the lonliness that can be in attending a boarding school I connected with Gus.

Returning to Ottawa at 20 to deal with her grandmother’s estate Gus finds in a trunk her personal items from her long lost childhood. In addition, she discovers her mother, an RCMP officer when she died, had been working on a cold case. 

Gus is intrigued. She strives to find more about the case and thereby more about her mother. Delving into the unknown of your family is fraught with excitement and dismay.

I closed my review by stating:

I will definitely read more of Tallo. She has gifts for characters, atmosphere, tension and psychological insight. Most important I will remember Gus. Damaged, not broken, she is especially memorable for her tenacity in clinging to love. 

For the first time in making a Best list all of my favourite novels for the year were Canadian writers.