Book Review: The Endless Knot

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

The Endless Knot     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Gail Bowen
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character   Legal Setting
Series: Joanne Kilbourn # 10
McClelland & Stewart, $32.99 hardcover, 290 pages

After the publication of Kathryn Morrissey’s sensational book on the children of prominent Canadians, one of the parents, Sam Parker, confronted the author with a loaded gun. Now he’s on trial for attempted murder, defended by Zack Shreve, the new man in Joanne Kilbourn’s life. Joanne’s been asked to cover the trial for NationTV. The central issues of the trial are: did Sam Parker intend to kill Kathryn Morrissey, and does a journalist have the right to abuse the confidence of her interviewees?

On the day of the verdict, Kathryn Morrissey is brutally murdered. Joanne learns that the ties that bind children and parents are fraught with more emotion than even she, loving mother to four, can imagine.

The Endless Knot is less about murder and legal trials than it is about relationships. In that, I suppose, it does its job, revealing the depths of the characters that populate the pages. Given the blurb on the cover, though, I was expecting rather more drama than I encountered. Bowen’s novel is low-key, despite the emotions supposedly churning throughout.

The characters are the book’s strength. However, for someone who hasn’t been reading the series all along, references to previous events can get confusing. Eventually, I stopped worrying about it and just skipped those references when and how I could.

I must add that I was disappointed in the ending, which, while it didn’t exactly come out of left field, left me feeling, in the words of the old song, “Is that all there is?” Despite the high-tension situation at the climax, I was let down by the mundanity of it all. Suffice it to say I probably won’t rush out to read the backlist.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM