Book review: Christine Cosack’s Barcelona Red Metallic keeps readers riveted, curious and unnerved

Article content

Barcelona Red Metallic

Christine Cosack  |  Second Story Press

$22.95 | 306pp

For those, like me, with scanty knowledge of the NATO phonetic alphabet, please let me be Lima Charlie (loud and clear): there’s no place for Barcelona, Red, or Metallic between the Alpha and Zulu of that communication code.

In fact, the title of Christine Cosack’s debut novel refers to a proprietary shade of red that Toyota introduced in the early 2000s.

Article content

Flecks of that paint are the primary clue in a satisfyingly twisty case that begins with a fatal hit-and-run and culminates in another violent — and seriously unexpected — action taken behind the wheel.

Southern Vancouver Island resident Cosack opens her novel with overlapping strands of story: a prologue set in 1975 introduces Jo, an anguished mother who’s hearing about the short life expectancy of her son Oliver, a child born with cystic fibrosis. Jumping forward about 40 years, Cosack depicts the death of Lena, a young child whose unlocked bicycle tempts her one fatal morning. Cosack then switches focus with a chilling glimpse of the driver, a budding psychopath who experiences a “rush of pleasure” at seeing and causing Lena’s death.

Within hours, Oyster Hill — a suburban community on the Sunshine Coast — reacts with grief, anger, and suspicion as neighbours ponder the who and why of the case. Local law begins to cooperate with an investigative team led by Luci that arrives from the city.

Initial suspects include a secretive loner with anger issues and a ferocious dog, as well as local artist Jo and her husband, son, and grandson. Plus, innumerable drivers of vehicles with a popular paint colour.

Article content

Article content

From the start, Cosack’s fascination with Jo is evident. The story of Barcelona Red Metallic sets aside ample space for her, outlining the person she became in order to stand her ground with patronizing or indifferent doctors and explaining the serendipity of her becoming a well-regarded artist.

The intriguing character study comes at a cost. It’s unusual in a procedural to have so much focus on one character’s backstory, quite possibly because all that detail detracts from the genre’s usual business — clues, suspects, leads, dead ends, red herrings, and the mesmerizing cat-and-mouse of it all.

Jo’s heartache and strength, as well as her fiercely protective love, are eventually integral to the plot. On occasion, though, the scenes of her contending with the numerous difficulties of Oliver’s illness over the years seem to belong to a different kind of novel — about a mother’s all-consuming love, for instance. In Cosack’s novel Jo’s complexity, as well as her personal evolution, ethical deliberations, motivations, and actions tend to steal thunder, especially from the investigation whose completion gives the story its ready-made arc.

Article content

And Cosack stumbles a little with a boilerplate antagonist, who of course realizes that one kill is not enough. He’s less a character than an amalgam of traits made familiar by Hollywood over the decades.

Despite minor missteps, Cosack succeeds at her sketch of a small coastal town with a few secrets beneath its idyllic surface. Somewhere between a cosy mystery and Sam Wiebe, Barcelona Red Metallic keeps readers riveted, curious, and unnerved — just the things we crave from a murder mystery.

Salt Spring Island resident Brett Josef Grubisic is the author of five novels, including My Two-Faced Luck and The Age of Cities.

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. With a subscription, you’ll get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun online, as well as the ePaper and our app. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun.

Article content