The best book I read this month is a mystery by author Michael Redhill, writing as Inger Ash Wolfe. The Night Bell is the fourth book in his Hazel Micallef series—but you don’t need to have read the first three books in the series to follow and enjoy this one.
My friend Heidi recommended The Night Bell to me when I told her about my idea for my own next book. Her recommendation was spot-on. In addition to being a well-crafted mystery, the book gave me ideas for how to handle similar themes and plot events in my own writing.
The Night Bell is set in Port Dundas, Ontario, where bones have been discovered on the grounds of a new housing development—a development that was built on the site of a now-defunct boys home. The situation exacerbates existing power struggles in the town—between the local police and the RCMP, between Detective Hazel Micallef and her supervisor, between the developers and the residents of the new subdivision. It also raises ghosts not just from the town’s past but from Hazel’s past, as well. Can she trust her memories of her friends and family? On top of these challenges, Hazel must also deal with her mother, who has dementia, a missing colleague, and a colleague returning to work too soon after a catastrophic injury.
It all makes for an expertly-woven complex story.