Pg. 69: Suzanne Kingsmill's "Forever Dead"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Suzanne Kingsmill's Forever Dead.

About the book, from the author's website:

Hitch a ride with zoology professor Cordi O’ Callaghan as she unwittingly gets pulled into some action-packed scenarios when she discovers a body while on a white water canoe trip in the wild woods of west Quebec, Canada. Shortly after this gruesome discovery her life is threatened, her research disks are stolen and her lab at the university is fumigated. And there’s the little problem of a rogue bear and some killer rapids. She has to get her disks back or lose her job (and possibly her life) - it’s publish or perish. She’s not about to perish, at least not that way. So she sets out to get her disks back.

This is Cordi’s first murder case and she is not your average hard-boiled sleuth who shoots from the hip. Cordi doesn’t shoot at all. In fact she doesn’t even own a gun, unless a flare gun counts. She has fears and misgivings, like most people, and they come into play as she struggles to solve a murder and salvage her career as a university zoology professor.

Fortunately she doesn’t have to struggle alone. Martha Bathgate, Cordi’s technician and sounding board, with a flair for the ridiculous, keeps Cordi out of the dumps. Her brother, Ryan O’Callaghan, a photographer and farmer and Duncan McPherson, a crusty old coroner add to the convoluted mix of mystery and suspense. And then there’s Patrick, because where would Cordi’s life be without romance? But their relationship is off to a rocky start when Cordi puts him on the list of possible suspects.

Among the praise for Forever Dead:

Forever Dead “is a promising debut from Kingsmill” with “a slickly put together plot” and “no novel with a smart three-legged cat can fail to find its audience, and Forever Dead has that and the promise of more to come.”
--Margaret Cannon, Globe & Mail

Listen to the Prologue from Forever Dead and learn more about the book at Suzanne Kingsmill's website.

Suzanne Kingsmill is the author of four non-fiction books and has written for such magazines as Equinox, Canadian Geographic, Macleans, Science, New Scientist, International Wildlife, Discover, Canadian Living, Islands, Nature Canada, Seasons, Birder’s World and many more.

The Page 69 Test: Forever Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue