This week's book reviews, by Connie Forst, as submitted for publication in the Tofield Mercury.

Red Dog, Red Dog by Patrick Lane

Shortlisted for the Writer's Trust fiction prize. An epic novel of unrequited dreams and forestalled lives, Red Dog, Red Dog is set in the mid-1950s, in a small town in the interior of B.C. in the unnamed Okanagan Valley. The novel focuses on the Stark family, centering on brothers Eddy and Tom, who are bound together by family loyalty and inarticulate love.   

The Retreat by David Bergen

This novel tells the story of the complicated love between a white girl and a native boy, and of a family on the verge of splintering forever. It is also the story of the bond between two brothers who are separated in childhood, and whose lives and fates intertwine ten years later.   

Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

Robyn moved to LA after her husband died to try to put to put some distance between herself and the life they had together. And the challenges of her job as the PR consultant to a Paris Hilton wannabe are pretty distracting. But then her celebutante is gunned down in a night club, and Robyn is suddenly the prime suspect.

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