Review of THE BIG CHILL by Doug Johnstone

 4 Stars

I met the three Skelf women (operating an Edinburgh funeral home and private investigations business) late last year in A Dark Matter; having enjoyed making their acquaintance, I returned for a second visit.  Reading The Big Chill was indeed like revisiting people with whom I’d like to establish friendships.

This novel begins six months after the events of A Dark Matter.  The women are certainly dealing with the fallout from events described in the first book of the series.  In addition, there are new cases which require their attention.

Dorothy, the 70-year-old matriarch, has a close call when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral she is overseeing.  The driver dies but there is no identification, so she sets out to learn his identity and story.  One of her music students then goes missing; though her mother does not seem overly concerned, Dorothy is intent on finding Abi.  Jenny, Dorothy’s 40-year-old daughter, is trying to move on after the arrest of Craig, her ex-husband, and has tentatively embarked on a relationship with Liam whom she met while conducting an investigation on behalf of his wife.  Unfortunately Craig’s machinations leave her little respite.  And Hannah, Jenny’s 20-year-old daughter, is befriended by an elderly professor whose sudden death has her investigating.

All of these plotlines could result in confusion, but that is not the case.  Short, punchy chapters alternating among the three women keep the plot moving apace, but it’s never difficult to remember the various cases.  Unlike television detective shows, not all cases are definitively solved:  “On TV dramas everything gets tied up, they catch the killer and get resolution.  . . . If only.”  Certainly the major storyline introduced in A Dark Matter will continue into the third book of the series though, unfortunately, it is the twists in this plot that are not always totally credible.

A major theme is the importance of a supportive family, and “how we all need someone to rely on” – an idea introduced in the first book.  Dorothy tells Indy, Hannah’s partner, that she is part of the Skelf family:  “’We’re here for each other.  That what gets us through.’”  Indy repeats this to Hannah:  “’Your gran said something recently.  We’re a family.  We need to be here for each other, support one another.’”  Of course, asking for support or giving it is not always easy.  Jenny, for instance, has difficulty asking for the support she needs to help her cope, and Hannah looks to Indy for support but needs to be reminded to reciprocate.  The novel also shows what happens when family is not supportive or when a family member is well-intentioned but not helpful in the best way.

As in the previous book, I enjoyed the characters’ reflections on life:  “It’s easy to be moral if those morals aren’t tested” and “Words have meaning . . . but they’re so inadequate, and we each have a lifetime of hang-ups and quirks that feed into how we speak” and “reason was overrated, we do things because we’re compelled.  . . . we’re not so evolved from animals in the dirt, even if we like to think we are” and “We’re all a mystery to others and ourselves” and “Maybe life is just chasing shadows, following leads, trying to find answers.”  There is comfort in reading such reflections the reader has probably had.  These women are like all of us, “putting one foot in front of the other, trying to carve out some peace amongst the mayhem and madness, secrets and lies, violence and pain.”

It will not be long before I once again visit with these women whom one character accurately describes as “’the strongest women I’ve ever met.  If anyone can handle things, it’s the Skelfs.’”  And this strength is a good thing because it’s obvious that at the end of The Big Chill, they are having only “a moment of quiet before the next piece of shit [comes] flying at them.”