Attaché case

Winnipeg Free Press

10-05-2025

Define boring and give an example: the career-plateaued Canadian ambassador to Iceland takes a ferry to a small island to officially open an exhibit by a young Canadian artist/scientist resident in Iceland.
People are yawning, trying to stay awake, and suddenly — gasp! Choke! Splutter! Splat! Thump!
Well yes, of course someone gets murdered. Poison most foul.
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Eliza Reid's debut mystery novel is less grisly Nordic noir and more closed-door, Agatha Christie-type suspense.
Who, you're not going to find out here, but it's pivotal to a nifty Agatha Christie-style debut murder mystery by Canadian Eliza Reid, who's married to the former president of Iceland.
Reid has published major non-fiction works on gender equality and women's rights, but Death on the Island is her first work of fiction, and devilish it is.
Having killed off one character, Reid then flashes back, counting down the hours until that person dies.
Then after the young local police officer arrives and a handy storm cancels all ferries and flights to the island, Reid counts down her chapters beginning with '37 hours before he dies,' with no hint of who 'he' may be. Rather fiendish — well played, Eliza.
Reid's surrogate herein is Jane Shearer, wife of Canadian ambassador Graeme. He's not in the best of moods, his promising career stalled in the low minors long ago, and he's hoping to get a deal with the local fish merchant to expand into Canada, that petty bourgeoisie's reprehensive labour record notwithstanding.
We soon also learn Graeme is a cad and well on his way to being a scoundrel. But is he a killer?
Jane describes herself as a trailing spouse, invisible, dressed to blend into the background, to make nice with the spouses of other dignitaries. Turns out she's quite the amateur sleuth, to no reader's surprise.
The eclectic cast of characters at the first death tends to loathe each other for reasons Reid will elucidate, with the exception of those who are hopping in and out of each other's beds. Among those is Graeme, establishing diplomatic relations with non-domestic boudoirs.
Death on the Island
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Heads up Gimli, there is a character from your community, a famous Canadian author with Icelandic roots. Is he at all familiar?
Everyone underestimates the local cop, because he grew up on the island and everyone more senior is storm-stranded in Reykjavik, though Jane recognizes the intelligence he's hiding and — gosh, wasn't Miss Marple's first name Jane? As we were saying, she gives him a gentle hint here and there, and eventually he gathers everyone to re-enact the first death.
Death on the Island is a humdinger of a debut novel. So many people could be guilty for so many reasons, so many big fish in a little pond are hiding secrets of nastiness that may not necessarily include murder, so much deviousness.
What have you got next, Eliza?
Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin would have had a tough time as a diplomat — too much making nice and trying to remember which fork goes with which course.