The bay of love and sorrows /

Across the bay from Prince Edward's Island, Michael Skid's hometown has all the characteristics of a deeply traditional rural community. The son of a local judge, Michael counts himself among the affluent, but he is inclined to search out the seedy underbelly of every social situation he encounters. His harsh words have destroyed a genuine friendship with the stoic Tommie Donnerel, and his loveless caresses have tarnished the virtue of more than one besotted maiden. Now his confident stride and a thirst for quick cash have led him to befriend Everette Hutch, a volatile ex-con with a blackened heart and the mind of a shrew. Michael is as naive as the other downtrodden individuals Everette has chosen as pawns to carry out his darkly laid plans, and the tragic events that ensue will forever be ingrained in the minds of the townspeople residing in The Bay of Love and Sorrows. Richards' story falls into place with the ease of a domino rally, providing all of the elements for a riveting story. Elsa Gaztambide

Richards's latest (after Mercy Among the Children) is the powerful tale of a botched drug deal in a small Nova Scotia town in the 1970s. Karrie Smith and Tom Donnerel are high school sweethearts who, by the summer after her first year of college, are mired in a long-term grudge match. Karrie gives in to her attraction to Tom's charismatic friend, Michael Skid, the son of a local judge who lures Karrie into a manipulative and loveless relationship. Michael, in turn, is manipulated by a drug dealer, Everette Hutch, who coerces Michael into using his father's sailboat to ship a stash of tainted drugs. Michael tosses the stash overboard when the Coast Guard suddenly turns up, but Everette is unimpressed by his resourcefulness, and Michael's effort to recoup the drug money sets off a chain of murders that leaves several main characters dead, Tom in prison, and Michael exonerated, though heartbroken. Michael gets his revenge, with the help of the ravaged beauty Madonna Brassaurd, a friend whose brother, Silver, played a pivotal role in the earlier murders. Richards's tight plotting keeps the labyrinthine narrative riveting. The cycles of violence and retribution sometimes verge on melodrama, an effect intensified by the occasionally portentous prose (" `It will snow tomorrow,' thought Michael. `It will snow all the days of my youth' ") and the thin characterizations of some of the teenagers (Karrie especially seems simpleminded and younger than her years). Yet in spite of their shortcomings, the characters' rage and bloodlust and remorse are always believable. Those who loved Richards's debut will appreciate once again the grit and moral intensity with which he infuses his provincial portraits. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The title says it all: there is no joy in Richards's landscape. In the early Seventies, Michael Skid, the privileged son of a judge, returns to his hometown on the Oyster River in rural New Brunswick from his postgraduate wanders through India. He takes up with a dangerous crowd, including Everette Hutch, an ex-convict who makes a practice of surreptitiously taping his friends in order to blackmail them later, and his coterie of drug-using associates. Michael's casual good looks and good fortune serve as a magnet for a number of local women, including the beautiful but promiscuous Madonna Brassaurd, accustomed to using her body for favors; Laura McNair, the attorney responsible for sending Everette to prison; and Karrie Smith, the fiance of Tommie Donnerel, Michael's estranged childhood friend. Flirting with danger, Michael becomes unwittingly embroiled in a mescaline deal gone sour. As the violence escalates, Tommie becomes the scapegoat for Michael's recklessness. For all of the novel's despair, its multilayered plot, complex characters, and clean, spare prose will spellbind readers. Though the book was originally published in Canada in 1998, the American debut is timed to coincide with its release as a motion picture. Recommended for all public libraries.-Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Toronto-based Richards (Mercy Among the Children, 2001, etc.), winner of multiple Canadian literary awards, strains both credibility and the reader's ability to keep a straight face with this pullulating melodrama, published in Canada in 1998. In an unnamed New Brunswick bayside town, pretty young Karrie Smith's betrothal to farmer Tommie Donnerel is put on hold when Karrie becomes attracted to glowering Michael Skid, the ne'er-do-well son of a prominent judge. Michael, meanwhile, is smitten with gorgeous slut Madonna Braussard, who, with her Cro-Magnon brother Silver, earns an unpretty penny dealing "bad drugs"--which trade attracts the interest of satanic ex-convict Everette Hutch ("the swirling center, the black hole . . . [which] Madonna and Silver and Michael . . . were being sucked into"). A violent murder rattles the community, and the wrong man is convicted and imprisoned. A sneaky plot twist endangers the gas-station scam practiced by Karrie's troglodyte parents. Everette crashes his motorcycle, and gives the reader a brief rest by lapsing into a coma. The plot thickens like month-old oatmeal, chickens come home to roost, the guilty are punished, justice delayed is not denied, and the innocent get married and talk it all over 20 years later. These beguiling absurdities are recounted in a burly, barely serviceable prose in which subjects and predicates often remain as far apart as feuding relatives estranged for decades (e.g., this side-winding sentence: "Is that how your new friends who we never see, and who never come to the house, and who all look like refugees, just like you, taught you how to be?"). A stultifying amalgam of Peyton Place, The Beans of Egypt, Maine, The Return of the Native, and Tobacco Road. O Canada! O Mores! Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.