Product Description

Joanne Kilbourn is looking forward to a relaxing weekend at the lake with her children and her new grandchild when murder once more wreaks havoc in Regina, Saskatchewan. A young colleague at the university where Joanne teaches is found stabbed to death in the basement of the library.

Ariel Warren was a popular lecturer among the students and staff, and her violent death shocks – and divides – Regina’s small and fractious academic community. Kevin Coyle, a professor earlier accused of sexual harassment, is convinced the murder is connected to his case, even as Ariel’s long-time lover, Charlie Dowhanuik, a radio talk-show host, seems to point the finger at himself in his on-air comments on the day of the murder.

Aghast at Charlie’s indiscretion, his father, Howard, asks his old friend Joanne for her help. But before Joanne has a chance to start searching for the truth, she is scorched by the white-hot anger of militant feminists on campus when a vigil for the dead woman turns ugly. Instead of a tribute to Ariel’s life, the vigil becomes an angry protest about violence against women. Some of the women there are certain they know who killed Ariel, and they are out for vengeance.

The everyday family problems and joys Joanne Kilbourn experiences as she solves baffling murder cases have endeared her to a growing number of fans, as have the television movies, starring Wendy Crewson as Joanne. The seventh novel in Gail Bowen’s much-loved series, Burying Ariel offers readers an imaginative, compassionate, and, above all, challenging mystery.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104043 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-25
• Released on: 2001-09-25
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.99" h x .57" w x 4.27" l, .35 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 272 pages

Books in Canada
It's not uncommon for an academic to get stabbed in the back, but when it literally happens to her 27-year-old colleague in the political science department, Ariel Warren, amateur sleuth Joanne Kilbourn is set to solve her seventh case in Gail Bowen's Burying Ariel. Bowen introduced the winsome sleuth in Deadly Appearances (1990) and won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel of 1995 for A Colder Kind of Death.
There's a birthday party going on for an administrative assistant when another colleague once accused of "attitudinal harassment" informs Joanne of the murder. A young air conditioning repair person found the body in the archive room in the basement of the library. Although he's the first suspect, there is a long line of others. The new head of the political science department, the recently divorced Livia Brook, finds taking charge of the faculty about as "rewarding as herding cats." Solange Levy is one of the herd. A "feminist warrior", she has a "Joan of Arc haircut and a uniform of black T-shirt, black jeans, and ragged Converse high-top runners." Hired at the same time as Ariel, she politicizes her friend's death, using a mourning vigil as a chance to rally an all-female gathering against the common cause of male aggression and domination.
When it's discovered that Ariel was pregnant at the time of her death, an ex-lover, twenty-seven-year-old radio talk show host Charles Dowhanuik makes for an easy target. What complicates matters is that Charles is also the son of the ex-premier who is the newest member of the poli sci department. It also doesn't help that Charles appears to be going through a very public, on-air meltdown. Joanne's reliably even-handed investigation turns up more than the usual skeletons before she sorts out the internal and infernal wrangling. Fans of academic shenanigans and Bowen's legion of followers will be richly rewarded. Robert Allen Papinchak (Books in Canada)

Review

"A rare sort of comfort food: characters whose commitment to tough ideals makes them worth caring about despite the secrets that can drive them to murder -- and worse."
— Kirkus Reviews

"A study in human nature craftily woven into an intriguing whodunit."
— Ottawa Citizen

"This tale of love and academic intrigue grabs the reader from the beginning." 
— Globe and Mail

"Nearly flawless plotting, characterization, and writing." 
— Joan Barfoot,  London Free Press

From the Back Cover
Praise for the Joanne Kilbourn Series:

Deadly Appearances
“Gail Bowen has written a compelling novel infused with a subtext that’s both inventive and diabolical. Her future as a crime writer is no mystery.”
–Montreal Gazette

Murder at the Mendel
“A third of the novel is a tense, masterfully written character study; then the killings begin…Bold and powerful.”
–Publishers Weekly

The Wandering Soul Murders
“Bowen’s best book to date.…She pulls her complicated story together around a shocking and all-too-realistic secret”
–Globe and Mail

A Colder Kind of Death
“A delightful blend of vicious murder, domestic interactions, and political infighting that is guaranteed to entertain.”
–Quill & Quire

A Killing Spring
“A page-turner. More than a good mystery novel, it is a good novel, driving the reader deeper into a character who grows more interesting and alive with each book.”
–LOOKwest

Verdict in Blood
“Once again, Canada’s sleuth scores with readers. Bowen reaches out to grab her audience with her first sentence of this page-turner and she doesn’t let go until her satisfying conclusion.”
–Canadian Press