Review of WHISPER OF THE SEALS by Roxanne Bouchard

 4 Stars

This, the third Detective Joaquin Moralès book, is a compelling read.

There are two plots.  In one, Fisheries Officer Simone Lord, who has been transferred to the Magdalen Islands, is tasked with monitoring a late-season grey-seal hunt aboard the trawler Jean-Mathieu.  The unsavoury crew is antagonistic towards her, and it soon becomes apparent that the hunting of seals is not the only goal of the trip.

The second plot focuses on Det. Moralès.  After his divorce is finalized, he reluctantly goes on a cruising and cross-country skiing holiday around the Gaspé with his friends, Érik Lefevre and Nadine Lauzon.  In her role as a forensic psychologist, Nadine is investigating the savage beating of a teenager.  She encourages Joaquin to take an interest in the case.  As expected, that case leads to the Jean-Mathieu. 

From the very beginning, there is a constant sense of danger.  Simone is the only woman on a boat with a drug addict, a former poacher with a desire for revenge against fisheries officials, a misogynist, and an enigmatic man with a hidden agenda.  When she arrives on board, one of the men thinks, “Bitches like that, they deserved nothing but a good whack on the back of the head with a hakapik.”  Then there are the dangers of venturing out during a winter storm which has all the other boats taking shelter onshore.  And more than once the treacherousness of walking on the ice during the hunt is mentioned.   Throughout, the reader is aware of how isolated the trawler is and how slim the chances of a rescue if necessary.  Of course, Simone is the most isolated since she doesn’t know if there is anyone she can trust.   

Foreshadowing is abundant.  When the trawler sets out, “a hefty wash made a rolling wake.  It was sharpened to a blade by a frothing sea turned bloody by the crimson sun . . . Atop the raging waves, were flat clouds, their carmine bellies stacked heavy amidst layers of grey in a harsh, foreboding sky.”  Blood is mentioned often:  “slipping in the viscous pools of blood” and “red trails of blood streaked behind them” and “the deck flooding with blood” and “overalls glistening with blood” and “blood, guts and skulls were all that was left.”  The ending, therefore, though emotionally devastating, is expected.  Describing the atmosphere as ominous is certainly not hyperbole. 

Besides serving as a physical danger, the stormy weather serves as a metaphor for Joaquin and Simone’s emotional states.  The detective has just ended a 30-year marriage and he is floundering.  He is grieving a loss and fears a life of loneliness.  The Fisheries officer has lots of time to think, and her thoughts reveal her regrets and fear of not finding an enduring love.  Both of them are sensitive despite their tough exteriors.   

Readers should be warned that the seal hunt is graphically described.   Reading about the killing of the animals is difficult:  “Even though the creatures were dead, the hunters were still required to crush their skulls with the hammerhead side of their hakapiks.”  The author, however, takes pains to point out that this technique, though gruesome, is “the most effective and pain-free method of killing seals.”  She also emphasizes the need for culling; a sealer says, “’And things will get tricky pretty quickly if there’s a decline in sealing.  We’re harvesting barely ten percent of a population of hundreds of thousands.  If we don’t keep their growth in check, they’ll eat all the fish and crustaceans.’”  I learned that the actions of activists could actually endanger the seals:  a group “had daubed the seal pups with red paint, supposedly to protect them from the hunters.  But the smell of the paint had driven the mothers away, and thousands of baby seals had starved to death.”

Part of the book’s appeal for me was the setting.  I’ve toured the Gaspé more than once and visited the Magdalen Islands last year.  I fell in love with the archipelago.  Reading this novel with its references to specific places was a nostalgic trip for me.

I’ve read all three books in the series.  Though I found the first book (We Were the Salt of the Sea) a faltering start, the author found her stride in the second book (The Coral Bride).  And this third one is accomplished.  I’m hoping there will be more books to follow.