Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope

About the Book

 A Globe and Mail bestseller in its first week, the thirteenth in Gail Bowen's beloved Joanne Kilbourn mystery series is the best of them all: very bad things happen very close to home, and Joanne may never be quite the same again.

     "Security for any one of us lies in greater abundance for all of us." For many years, this was the core of Joanne's political beliefs, but for a number of reasons, she has drifted away from it. But soon after she retires from her university teaching post, Joanne is forced to experience its truth. Two groups -- developers with a vision for a revitalized neighbourhood on one side, protestors who fear gentrification will further marginalize their community on the other -- are close to war and Joanne and Zack have loved ones on both sides. One night their house is blown up, and that is only the first of several terrible incidents that force Joanne to consider what it means to live in a world where she can count on nothing.

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Praise for Kaleidoscope

National Bestseller

“I love this series. . . . This book brings [Joanne Kilbourn] back to her conscience and her past, and Bowen does it all with panache.”
—Margaret Cannon, The Globe & Mail

“Bowen writes beautifully in catching the tone and the minutiae of [Joanne’s] almost flawless familial existence. . . . Keeps readers turning the pages.”
—Jack Batten, Toronto Star

“[Gail Bowen is] one of the finest [writers] in Canada. Kaleidoscope is the 13th Joanne Kilbourn mystery. It’s as fresh and compelling as the first one.”
Hamilton Spectator

“[Bowen asks questions in Kaleidoscope] that really hold the series together, and invite us to fill in past gaps and look forward to future books.”
National Post

“A pitched battle over the redevelopment of a troubled area of town reminds Joanne Kilbourn that her beloved Regina is prone to all the troubles of modern cities, including murder. . . . As usual in Joanne’s world [there are] the celebrations of ongoing life: two weddings, a child birth, several parties and a great deal of civilized but enthusiastic connubial sex.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Bowen is a charming, social-minded writer. I admire her ability to narrate Saskatchewan—it’s beauties and barbarities. . . . The characters Bowen imagines have depth, good intentions that pave the potholed city of Regina. . . . Kaleidoscope is a mystery—a good one too. But more so, Bowen is a pundit and socially conscious artist. The commentary and dynamic plot within this novel hold with perfect geometry and colourful ideas viewed through Bowen’s lens.”
—Devin Pacholik, Global News Regina/Patches and Pages blog


Praise for Gail Bowen and the Joanna Kilbourne mysteries

"Bowen is one of those rare, magical mystery writers readers love not only for her suspense skills but for her stories’ elegance, sense of place and true-to-life form. . . . A master of ramping up suspense.”
Ottawa Citizen

“Bowen can confidently place her series beside any other being produced in North America.”
Halifax Chronicle-Herald

“Gail Bowen’s Joanne Kilbourn mysteries are small works of elegance that assume the reader of suspense is after more than blood and guts, that she is looking for the meaning behind a life lived and a life taken.”
Calgary Herald

“Bowen has a hard eye for the way human ambition can take advantage of human gullibility.”
Publishers Weekly

“Gail Bowen got the recipe right with her series on Joanne Kilbourn.”
Vancouver Sun

“What works so well [is Bowen’s] sense of place—Regina comes to life—and her ability to inhabit the everyday life of an interesting family with wit and vigour. . . . Gail Bowen continues to be a fine mystery writer, with a protagonist readers can invest in for the long run.”
National Post

“Gail Bowen is one of Canada’s literary treasures.”
Ottawa Citizen
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A Joanne Kilbourn Mystery Series

A Darkness of the Heart
The Winners' Circle
What's Left Behind
12 Rose Street
The Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries 6-Book Bundle Volume 3
The Gifted
Kaleidoscope
The Brutal Heart
The Endless Knot
The Last Good Day
View more

About the Author

Gail Bowen

GAIL BOWEN's first Joanne Kilbourn mystery, Deadly Appearances (1990), was nominated for the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada Best First Novel Award, and A Colder Kind of Death (1995) won the Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel; all 14 (and counting!) books in the series have been enthusiastically reviewed. In 2008, Reader's Digest named Bowen Canada's Best Mystery Novelist; in 2009, she received the Derrick Murdoch Award from the Crime Writers of Canada. Bowen has also written plays that have been produced across Canada and on CBC Radio. Now retired from teaching at the First Nations University, Bowen lives in Regina. www.gailbowen.com.

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