Book Review: The Berry Pickers

Peters, Amanda. The Berry Pickers. HarperCollins Canada, 2023.

Peters’ debut novel is an emotional exhalation of a book, a shaky sigh that carries with it the weight of fractured families, dark secrets, painful mistakes, and lost souls struggling to find their way home. The narrative alternates between the viewpoints of two characters: Joe, a terminally ill Mi’kmaw man who reflects on the tragedies of his life, particularly the mysterious disappearance of his sister Ruthie at a young age; and Norma, a woman whose childhood dreams of another life are nervously dismissed by her neurotically overprotective white mother. While the connection between Norma and Joe is obvious from the opening chapters, the narrative slowly and achingly winds its way to its inevitable conclusion. 

The influence and mentorship of Metis author Katherena Vermette is apparent in this triumph of a first novel that will leave readers eager to witness the next steps in Peters’ literary career. Using the story of one family, the novel presents a microcosm of the kinship-breaking forces of settler colonialism, particularly the sense of white entitlement to Indigenous bodies that has caused such devastating loss. Despite the heartbreaking tragedy at the centre of the story, The Berry Pickers is also brimming with a fierce love, the promise of reconnection, and the possibility of linguistic revival over the preparation of tapatat (potato) and pitewey (tea).

Book Review: Cold Skies

King, Thomas. Cold Skies. HarperCollins, 2018.

The third installment of the DreadfulWater mystery series, Cold Skies features the return of Thumps DreadfulWater, former cop turned professional fine art photographer, once again reluctantly wrangled back into the world of law enforcement, this time as (un)official acting sheriff of Chinook. The water crisis, and the capitalist exploitation of it, provide the topical backdrop for the murder mystery. With the emergence of a new technology that promises to provide accurate measurements of aquifers and oil deposits, there is the threat of unscrupulous actors who are willing to kill to control access to this data that could make or break their lucrative investments.

As for Thumps? He just wants to focus on his immediate domestic reality: enjoying his on-again/off-again relationship with Claire that is currently in a stable ‘on’ position, hanging out with his cat Freeway, and coveting a new six-burner gas stove for his house. But the appearance of multiple dead bodies with connections to a local water conference, Thumps’ history of helping out Sheriff Hockney, and Thumps’ own curiosity and analytical mind soon draw him back into detective work.

As with the first two books in the series, the novel is critical of the culture of law enforcement, but this critique becomes somewhat toothless within the constraints of the narrative, largely succumbing to the propagandistic charms of the detective genre. The narrative is aware of itself as a cliché in moments of heightened cinematic drama (high speed chases, cops breaking down doors with guns drawn, and perp walks), but it doesn’t do much with this awareness other than playfully elbow the reader, appealing to our desire for a dramatic story, feeding a demand for tropes that valorize police displays of power.

Despite any ideological criticism that can be made against it, Cold Skies is undeniably another page-turner with King’s superior skills as a storyteller on full display. The book contains all the usual dynamic dialogue and quirky characters one has come to expect and appreciate in a Thomas King novel. With the characters and setting well-established at this point, reading the novel feels like cozying up under a familiar blanket, an effect that is no doubt intensified for longtime fans of serialized mysteries.