Menace: An Edwina Henderson Mystery

Eddie Henderson #2

by L.R. Wright

After years of working under someone else, Eddie Henderson has been promoted. She is now in charge of the RCMP detachment in Gibsons, British Columbia—a force of fifteen officers and two civilians. While she is busy sizing up her staff, a woman reports a theft and then another reports a break-in. At first Eddie considers both complaints insignificant, even trivial. But as she and her new second-in-command begin to investigate, they are led into a dangerous confrontation with a stalker, obsessed with a woman who lives alone. His rage is rapidly escalating and he seems set to kill. Battling against the clock to find her man, Eddie can’t shake the feeling that he may be closer than anyone suspects.

An intricately crafted story with a diverse cast of vividly portrayed characters, Menace is a gripping novel from one of Canada’s most celebrated mystery writers.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Canada

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2001

About the author

L.R. Wright was born Laurali Rose Appleby on 5 June 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Known as Bunny, Wright grew up in Saskatoon and in Abbotsford, British Columbia. She worked as a reporter in Calgary before becoming a full-time writer in 1977. After publishing her fourth book, Wright returned to school, receiving an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University. She taught writing at the University of British Columbia and wrote adaptations for several of her books for radio, film, and television. L.R. Wright died of breast cancer on 25 February 2001.

Series:
* Karl Alberg
* Eddie Henderson

Awards
Arthur Ellis Award: Novel
* 1991 – A Chill Rain in January – Winner
* 1996 – Mother Love – Winner

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read quite a few of Wright's crime novels years ago. I enjoyed her plots and her lead detective, Karl Alberg of the RCMP stationed in Sechelt on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast. This book features a new lead investigator, Eddie Henderson, who had been trained by Alberg. She still lives in Sechelt but is in charge at the Gbsons, BC detachment. The Sunshine Coast is less than an hour from my home so the setting rings true for me. Wright does an excellent job of painting verbal pictures of the beauty of the ocean, mountains, and islands of BC's West Coast in all kinds of weather. She also does an excellent job of interweaving the thoughts of the criminal with the police reactions. At first the officers believe that a break-in and a theft with two females victims are examples of "small town" crimes done by restless kids. However, because the reader knows what the perpetrator is thinking, the crimes have a much more sinister character. The female victims, a young professional and a middle-aged widow, appear to be totally unconnected when the police investigate. As the novel progresses, however, the reader feels the menace that the women face. When the police realize what they are dealing with, the reader is hoping that they find the person before it is too late. As a reader of crime novels, I want to be part of the investigation team. In this book, I find out who the perpetrator is only hours before the RCMP does. a satisfying process for me. "Menace' reminded me that L. R. Wright is an extremely skilled writer. I will search out other books she has written which I have not read yet. I suggest you do too.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow I missed the two Edwina Henderson books that completed L.R. Wright's mystery series set on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast (a name that can be uttered in pouring rain without even a hint of irony). Sgt Henderson "Eddy" is still recovering from an abusive relationship with another officer while she was serving in Burnaby so when two odd cases of stalking turn up she is quite sensitive to a possibly serious situation.
We have internal narrative from all the characters, including the stalker, so we know exactly what is going on in everyone's mind but there is nothing to identify the perpetrator by his job. Eddy is the new head of detachment so she has private interviews to familiarise herself with her staff, but we get little to help us there.
MS Wright always used the Coast to great effect in her writing and in spite of the cancer that killed her before this was finished she did it again here. We are given the sky in its variety of colour and the effect of the rain on people's mood. The cedars sag their drooping branches over by passers and drip rain onto coats people's faces.
I grew up in this area and was able to walk down the streets, into the cafes and even the RCMP office (the "cop shop") in Gibsons with no effort at all, which makes it difficult for me to look at the book from a purely readers' point of view. I sat in the ferry lineup with the characters and walked down the beach and completely lost myself in the book.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadly this was her last book. I wish there was more Eddie Henderson stories. I really like her. I also wonder if she had planned on writing more about Alan and where she was going to go with that. I really love her writing. I will order the remaining four stand alones and her earlier work.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Sadly, the potential series ends there. She had amazing talent.

[Norma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have enjoyed her novels.

[Marco den Ouden · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is an end note to readers from Katey Wright, the daughter of author L.R. Wright, telling us that her mother passed away after a battle with breast cancer just before the final edits to the book were made. She led the family through the final editing stage from her hospital bed, hanging on until she was confident that the book was in good hands. Katey finished the copyediting a week after she passed. She believes working on the book kept her alive longer than she would otherwise have lived.

With her passing, Canada lost a great writer, a writer with great insight into the human psyche, a writer able to spin a great story based on these insights. In this, her second novel featuring Staff Sergeant Edwina Henderson, she weaves two stories that, as we later discover, are interconnected.

One is about Eddie's settling in to the new job as head of the Gibsons RCMP detachment. During the course of her orientation she interviews her staff members, trying to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses, taking notes as she does so. We get to know her crew and we get to know something about Eddie herself.

The other is the secret life of a pathological misogynist and narcissist. We don't know who he is but we follow his inner thoughts as he engages with a woman calling herself Jemima in an online chatroom. His pride and joy is an older model Lexus which he babies and relishes pushing to its limits when he can safely do so without attracting the attention of the cops.

We learn of his two obsessions. One is an older woman named Olive who resembles his late mother, who he hated with a passion. The other is a 30 something social worker named Rebecca who, after a chance encounter, he believes he is in love with, and more, he believes she is in love with him. In truth, she barely knows he's alive and has absolutely no interest in him.

Both women encounter a violation of their personal space. Olive has been moving boxes from her car into her home. As she goes to retrieve the last box, she finds it missing from her car. Someone has mysteriously stolen her box of books. She is also almost run over by a speeding car. Rebecca has her house broken into and her bedroom drawers rifled, with her underwear strewn on the bed. Both women report these violations to the police and Eddie works to get to the bottom of these mysteries.

But these relatively minor events escalate and Rebecca is warned she is being stalked. This cat and mouse hunt for an unknown stalker who neither woman remembers ever meeting builds up through most of the book as we follow the stalker's thoughts as he falls deeper and deeper into his delusions. Rebecca is asked to name all the men in her life, even casual encounters, but she cannot. Her mind draws a blank until her father comes to stay with her and helps jog her memory.

The novel has an interesting plot twist when the stalker's identity is revealed. I had no clue and was very surprised by this revelation. The ending is tense and suspenseful.

This is only the second of Wright's novels I have read. The first was her debut novel, The Suspect, which was the first Canadian novel to win an Edgar Award. That novel is also one that looks deeply into the mind of the criminal, into his or her motivations and thinking.

Her earlier novels, the Alberg and Cassandra series, are the basis of the Amazon Prime TV series Murder in a Small Town. What struck me from the TV series was how much police chief Karl Alberg, played by Rossif Sutherland, resembles Chief Inspector Armand Gamache in the Three Pines TV series and the Louise Penny novels it is based on. Sutherland plays Gamache's second in command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.

Both book series, the Gamache novels and the Alberg and Cassandra novels, are based in Canada, Penny's novels in Quebec and Wright's novels on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Both series take a deep psychological approach to mystery writing. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Wright's novels.

[Cynthia Sillitoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but sad because it was her last. A couple of little details that I think would have worked better if she'd been on top of her game and hadn't been battling cancer, but good. Eddie is a great character and I wish there could have been more novels. I was hoping for a cameo from Karl Alberg, but maybe she wanted Eddie to get more established first. Anyway, I still have a few of her novels to read and I will reread her mystery series plenty of times, I'm sure. Writers have a special kind of immortality.

[Deane · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Menace' is the last book that L.R. Wright wrote....she finished the last draft in Nov 2000; she died of breast cancer Feb 25, 2001. The book was published later in 2001.

Unlike the previous novels, this one did have a mystery involved but I did figure the culprit was a Mountie but not which one. So often I would think 'Eddie, check out your police staff'....even then after she figured it was one of her staff, she didn't pursue the thought or protect the victim as I had hoped. It certainly was a page turner....sadly the adventures of Staff Sgt Alberg and Sgt Edwina Henderson ended.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspector Edwina Henderson recently came to Gibsons to lead the police detachment. She interiews her staff one at a time, and shares her insight and questions about each person's character. Alternately, the narrator inhabits the mind of a dangerous man, obsessed with a woman who doesn't know he exists, except in passing. As he begins to stalk, then terrorize the woman, Edwina must determine the stalker's identity before it is too late.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was saddened to read that the author had passed away before finishing this one. But it still is a smooth and interesting mystery. I would have lived to read more about Eddie - she seemed like an awesome leader. This one had the right level of mystery and thriller making you wonder who the stalker was. I especially liked it because it spoke of Powell River where my husband's Mum lives. I think I'll pass it along to her as she may enjoy it, too.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a sense of menace in this book that escalates to the very end. You have to be in the right mood to read it.

This is the last book written by Wright who was dead from breast cancer before publication. The psychological overtones in the book are deeper than in her Karl Alberg series. Several of her books I have read more than once.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished re- reading all the Karl Alberg books and now the two Edwina Henderson books. The latter two are nowhere near as good although the characters were getting fleshed out in Menace. Sadly this was Bunny Wright's last book as she died just after finishing it. The original series was consistently good and got better as we got to know Karl and his cohorts in Sechelt.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

L.R. Wright Sunshine Coast series were delightful. I'm sad that she will write no more of them. This one was just getting into Eddie Henderson's new job in charge of an RCMP detachment. I liked her evaluations of her new staff and how it later figured in the stalking mystery.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, but feel rather sad that this is the last that Bunny wrote!

[Judy]

Loved it. I live on Vancouver Island and the setting is close to home...BC's Sunshine Coast.