The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard

In this alternate history, the Great Lakes region is part of an independent Ojibwe nation that was never colonized by Europeans. The peacekeeper of the title is Chibenashi, a lawman who has lived in the village of Baawitigong (which we know better as Sault Ste. Marie) his entire life.

Keeping the peace in Baawitigong usually isn’t a very str...

The Minus-One Club by Kekla Magoon

At first, I doubted that I would review this book.  There are multiple issues going on (sometimes it seems like too much.)  It’s heavy.  It’s messy.  It’s unresolved.  However, it turns out that The Minus-One Club is not a book I could read and not say something about, because, in the right hands, it has the potential to...

In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas

In the years before the American Civil War, Canada became a place of safety for formerly enslaved people who could reach its shores. There, refugees settled in communities like Buxton, Ontario and the fictional town of Dunmore, which sits on the northern coastline of Lake Erie and serves as the setting for Kai Thomas’s first novel.

One even...