The Peacekeeper

Book 48 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from May 7 - 30

The Peacekeeper

by B.L. Blanchard

Summary (via Goodreads)

North America was never colonized.  The United States and Canada don't exist. The Great Lakes are surrounded by an independent Ojibwe nation. And in the village of Baawitigong, a Peacekeeper confronts his devastating past.

Twenty years ago to the day, Chibenashi's mother was murdered and his father confessed. Ever since, caring for his still-traumatized younger sister has been Chibenashi's privilege and penance. Now, on the same night of the Manoomin harvest, another woman is slain. His mother's best friend. The leads to a seemingly impossible connection take Chibenashi far from the only world he's ever known.

The major city of Shikaakwa is home to the victim's cruelly estranged family - and to two people Chibenashi never wanted to see again: his imprisoned father and the lover who broke his heart. As the questions mount, the answers will change his and his sister's lives forever. Because Chibenashi is about to discover that everything about those lives has been a lie.

My Opinion

3 stars

May is always a busy month for us so reading time is hard to find.  This book was perfect for those moments - I was engrossed while I was reading but I was also able to put it down.  

The setting of a never-colonized North America was a good backdrop to have the modern technologies of the current day yet the tribes and traditions of something usually associated with the past.

I started to get frustrated about 75% of the way through about the blinders many people had while investigating but even I was surprised by the anger and venom that came through at the end so it still kept me on my toes even though I had suspicions much earlier than the characters.

 I see the author has written another book, one where the British Empire never existed, and I'll probably read that one too.