Author: Steven Owad

ISBN: 978-1-894917-59-9

Publisher: Rendez Vous Crime

Alberta’s oilsands, are the second largest oil reserves in the world, Saudi Arabia has the largest. This resource, known as bitumen, is encased in the earth in the northern part of the province. Extracting and refining the bitumen is a costly process that requires more money per barrel than pumping, so until recently, bitumen extraction hasn’t been economically viable. But now, as world oil prices rise and bitumen extraction becomes more viable, investment money is pouring into Alberta’s oil patch. The oilsands are fueling an economic boom that has been felt not only by the province, but by the region and indeed the whole country as well. And any new technology that reduces the cost of extraction could mean billions of dollars of more profit for the oil companies involved.

Meanwhile, to get at the bitumen, large swatches of land need to be scraped away creating environmental devastation that has environmentalists concerned about the future of Alberta’s natural history. Against this backdrop, Steven Owad has set his second crime novel, Brother’s Keeper.

Vince Maguire has spent the past ten years working as a journalist in Poland. He’s too old to look cool on the night club circuit, but has earned and kept a reputation as the fastest living expat in Poland. Lately he’s become disenfranchised with his life, and is merely going through the motions of getting through another day, when his brother calls.

Teddy is and artist, an actor really, who has drifted through life without any meaning or purpose, swinging from odd job to odd job. He informs Vince that he’s coming to Poland and that he will need to be picked up at the airport the following day. When Vince arrives at the airport, Teddy isn’t there; instead he meets Marty Eyres, Teddy’s friend, who claims that Teddy is flying stand-by and will be a day late. Vince brings Marty home and reluctantly offers him his sofa, but things don’t seem quite right. The next day, Marty calls Vince to pick him up and take him to the wealthy part of Warsaw. Once there, Vince unwittingly becomes an accomplice in a horrific crime.

Now Vince is on the run with the Warsaw police and some mysterious Americans on his trail. With no one to turn to, and fearing the worst for his brother, Vince skips town and follows his brother’s trail to the Alberta oilpatch. Once in Canada, Vince realizes that his brother is caught in a corporate war between dueling oilpatch companies, and a group of environmental activists. As hidden motives are slowly revealed, Vince begins to question his relationship with the very person he is trying to protect.

The breathless pace of Brother’s Keeper and its unique plotline propels the reader through this short book. There is a unity of focus, with no subplots, and unfortunately that means the reader is left out, in the cold Warsaw streets, when it comes to insights into the character’s motives. And unfortunately Owad stretches believability on several points including the nature of international law enforcement, and the lengths that people will go to help acquaintances they’ve just met.

Despite those points, Brother’s Keeper is a pretty cool book, featuring American characters, but written with a distinctly Canadian vibe. Plot twists and turns make it difficult to predict, and that keeps the narrative exciting until the final, satisfying resolution.

The above review was contributed by: Christopher Friesen-Writer and Book Reviewer from Canada. To read more of Chris's reviews CLICK HERE

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