Death's Golden Whisper

Meg Harris Mysteries #1

by R.J. Harlick

In the remote wilderness of West Quebec, where trees outnumber people a million to one and lakes a thousand to one, Death’s Golden Whisper opens with the sudden arrival of float planes bringing what Meg Harris believes are fishermen to the isolated northern lake she lives on. Within hours, she discovers that these men have come to develop a gold mine. She combines forces with Eric Odjik, chief of the neighbouring Migiskan reserve, to fight the mining company. The mine splits the Migiskan band into two opposing forces and ignites events that threaten Meg and lead to the mysterious disappearance of her friend Marie. As the search for Marie becomes more frustrating, another story unfolds and Meg discovers the mystery behind the intense feelings that bound her great-aunt to this lonely land until the day she died.


This is the first book in the Meg Harris Mystery series. The next book is Red Ice for a Shroud.

Genres: Mystery, Canada, Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Called "queen of Canadian wilderness fiction", R.J. Harlick writes the acclaimed Meg Harris mystery series set in the wilds of Canada with an underlying native theme. There are currently seven books in the series with the eighth, Purple Palette for Murder, due out in October 2017.

The fourth book, Arctic Blue Death, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Best Novel award. Silver Totem of Shame was named one of the top ten summer crime fiction reads by the Globe & Mail and was a recommended beach read by the Seattle Public Library. Cold White Fear was a CBC recommended mystery read.

With Death's Golden Whisper, the first book in the Meg Harris mystery series, RJ introduces protagonist Meg Harris who has fled the urban frenzy of Toronto and her failed marriage to Three Deer Point, a remote wilderness property in West Quebec, that she inherited from her Great Aunt Agatha. She lives in a century old Victorian timber cottage perched on a granite point overlooking the black waters of Echo Lake. Her only neighbour is the reserve of the Fishhook Algonquins, or Migiskan Anishinabeg. She drinks a little too much and is afraid of the dark, yet her only companion in this remote cottage is her wimpy standard poodle, Sergei.

She has fled to this northern paradise to heal her bruised soul. But her sought after peace is invariably interrupted by injustice and murder. Unable to ignore it, Meg becomes enmeshed in a quagmire of murderous intrigue.

After travelling to Baffin Island in Arctic Blue Death, Meg decided that she would love to explore a different Canadian wilderness and visit with its native peoples in every other book. Silver Totem of Shame takes place in Vancouver and Haida Gwaii, the mystical islands of the Haida. Purple Palette for Murder has Meg flying to the Northwest Territories when her husband is charged with murder.

Though the story of each book can stand on its own, there is a backstory about Meg and other characters that evolves from book to book. So avid readers of mystery series might want to start with the first book, Death's Golden Whisper.

Harlick is a member and past president of Crime Writers of Canada and Capital Crime Writers. She is also a member of Sisters in Crime, The Writers Union of Canada and Quebec Writers Federation.

She is a regular panelists at such conferences as Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, and Malice Domestic. She also does many store signings and library readings. To check out her schedule visit her blog. http://rjharlick.blogspot.ca

RJ blogs every second Tuesday on Criminal Minds - http://7criminalminds.blogspot.ca.

Visit with RJ on Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/RJHarlick
and on her website - http://www.rjharlick.ca

Reviews

[Thomas]

4 stars for a well done cozy mystery set in a wilderness area of West Quebec, Canada. There are several elements in this mystery:
A proposed gold mine mine in a site sacred to First Nations(indigenous) people.
Some First Nations want the mine, some don't
A genealogical mystery, which plays an important part in the book
A native woman disappears and is later found dead.
This is book 1 in what promises to be an excellent mystery series. Meg Harris does solve the mystery. There are several false clues. I wasn't sure who the killer was until the end..This was an Amazon purchase.
One quote on scenery: "To take my mind off Marie, I watched the cliffs of Three Deer Point merge with the vibrant colours of the surrounding hills. Although the maples still wore their autumn splendor, patches of bare branches were beginning to eat into the gold. A "V' line of Canada geese, fleeing south, was fast disappearing beyond the furthest ridge."

[Paul Weiss]

“C’est la douche écossaise, how we Québécois say, good news, bad news.”

Living on the isolated western Quebec property that she inherited from her great aunt, a fragile but determined Meg Harris is grappling with the double-barreled threats of encroaching alcoholism and the attempted continued domination of a husband whose attractions she can’t seem to shake. Harlick’s portrayal of isolation and small town/northern wilderness aboriginal culture in the face of murder, racism, policing, and the arrival of corporate Canada with money and a desire to despoil that wilderness and develop a gold mine is compelling. Having lived in Ontario’s far north for a period of time, I can assure you that her description of the vast gulf between even a well-intentioned white resident and aboriginal society is absolutely spot-on.

Great character development; a compelling, credible plot; atmospheric cultural and environmental background; educational and informative native lore … DEATH’S GOLDEN WHISPER is an easy novel to recommend and a worthy debut novel for a series that I definitely intend to read more of.

Paul Weiss

[Wendy]

Meg Harris is a Anglo Canadian woman who has inherited West Quebec Lands adjacent to a First Nations Reservation. Many regard her with suspicion and resent her, others ignore her. She has a few good friends from the Reservation.

Some of the lands beyond her land and reservation becomes endangered to mining.

The Reservation people are deeply divided because they are told mining means jobs and money. But it also means the destruction of sacred lands and there is an instant mistrust of them. Too many times, in Canadian, History First Nations have been abused and cheated. There is also a death of a well loved inhabitant and one of Meg's friend stands accused.

Despite being a mess emotionally she delves into fighting the Goliath Mining Company, joining forces with those against the mining. He she determined to prove her friend's innocence despite all the glaring evidence while confronting her past and alcoholic tendencies.

Harlick also does a good job describing Quebec's beautiful wilderness as well as the pervasive inequalities between Quebec's people.

[Marina]

Questo libro mi intrigava perché, oltre ad essere un giallo, è ambientato nella natura selvaggia del Canada, precisamente nel Quebec. Il Canada è un paese che mi affascina, soprattutto per la sua natura incontaminata. Mi piacerebbe visitarlo un giorno, ma per adesso mi accontento di farmi trasportare dai libri.

Il paesaggio è ben descritto in questo libro, che è ambientato vicino a una riserva indiana nel Quebec occidentale. Meg Harris è una donna sui 40 anni, che ha ereditato dalla prozia Three Dear Point, una proprietà vicino a un lago e alla suddetta riserva indiana, ma per il resto del tutto isolata. Meg sviluppa delle belle amicizie con gli abitanti della riserva, in particolare con il loro capo, Eric. Purtroppo un giorno si scopre che su Whispers Island, l'isola presente nel lago, c'è una miniera d'oro, e subito arrivano gli avvoltoi dalla città. Nella vita di Meg cerca anche di tornare, con la solita prepotenza, il suo ex marito Gareth, un uomo violento che non le ha risparmiato alcun tipo di abuso, sia verbale che fisico.

I personaggi sono ben delineati, l'ambientazione è bellissima, il giallo è discreto. Non l'ho trovato un libro eccelso, ma comunque piacevole. Il romanzo ha una sua conclusione, ma l'autrice ne ha fatto una serie con altri 7 libri; sono ancora indecisa se proseguire.

[Vontel]

This is the first Meg Harris book in a longer series by a Canadian author from Ottawa. I'm not sure how I discovered it, but decided to start with the beginning book. I enjoyed this book, set in western Quebec and within a couple of hours or so of driving to Ottawa. The plot themes resonate with issues and concerns across our country, and I suspect around the world, of the clashes and common causes between indigenous people and those who moved into the various countries, of power and politics, of industry and environment. They also resonate with the interpersonal challenges we all face. Although published in 2004, it could be happening today. I will definitely read more books in this series, working my way up the chronological order. I have had to request the next two via interlibrary loan.

[Anita]

Very Canadian! Meg Harris, a recent divorcee from Toronto is now living at the isolated wilderness home of Three Deer Point, Quebec, which she inherited from her great aunt Agatha. Gold miners arrive in float planes to develop the sacred aboriginal island she can see across from her home. Tempers flare and the potential mine threatens to divide the tribe. When Meg's friend and employee, Marie, goes missing and the body of Marie's husband turns up, Meg discovers that their families are entwined with past events on the island - and perhaps the future of the tribe, the island, and Meg herself. I look forward to reading the others in the Meg Harris series which has such a lush Canadian setting.

[Joanne Lécuyer]

I'm usually not a mystery reader, but I enjoyed the story. It was a fairly quick read. Thinking of getting book 2 for my summer reading! J:O)

[Mary Ann]

A story that included a bit of history and Native American culture. What better idea to wrap a plot than greed and lust whether in the past of the present. Both can deliver drastic results!

[Arlene Richards]

I enjoy books that include Canadian geography and culture intertwined in the plot.

[Janet]

Canadian historical mystery, a great read!

[Andra Weis]

Review Outstanding

[Heather]

The end of this book was far more interesting than the first 1/2. I realize that this is the 1st in the series so I will likely read one more in the hopes that the main character gets a bit more interesting, and that the portrayal of the first nations and french characters becomes less stereotypical. I do like to seek out Canadian authors and story lines so hopefully the next in the series is a bit stronger.

I think some sort of idea of when this story was set would have been helpful, the book was published in 2004 I believe but it feels like the story was maybe supposed to be set in the 80s? If this story is set pre-internet It would make the difficulties that Meg and her notary had in finding some key information make more sense, as well some of the tactics for trying to prevent access and clearing of the island.

I did finish the book though, often these days I just give up and move on so I guess something intriguing must have been there for me.

[John Geary]

One of those books I really tried hard to - but could not finish. For me, a murder mystery should have a dead body or at least some kind of crime by the end of the fourth chapter, fifth at the latest. I was 11 chapters into this and there still wasn’t any dead body or crime.
That doesn’t work for me.
That’s why I gave it two stars, the writing wasn’t all that bad, it’s just that the story bored me to tears. No murder, a long build up to the point where there was finally some kind of crime - which I never got to - and none of the characters in the book really endeared themselves to me.
Life is too short to force yourself to read books that don’t really grab your interest, especially fiction.

[Jane Mulkewich]

I was introduced to R.J. Harlick, the "queen of Canadian wilderness fiction", with her book "Purple Palette for Murder" which is set in Yellowknife, and am now going back to read her first one in the Meg Harris mystery series. This one, "Death's Golden Whisper" is set in the wilderness of West Quebec, and Meg Harris finds herself in the centre of some conflict involving her neighbours of the Migiskan band, and a mining company which is interested in developing a gold mine on Whispers Island. The plot has plenty to keep the reader turning pages, with several murders and some near misses, and Meg's love interests, and the history of her Aunt Aggie's life which turns out to be connected to who owns the property on Whispers Island.

[Debbie]

4.5 stars

A great new-to-me Canadian series set in the lake and woods country of western Quebec.

About the author: R.J. Harlick is an escapee from the high-tech jungle. After working for over twenty-five years in the computer industry, she decided that pursuing killers by pen would be more fun than chasing the elusive computer bug.

Originally from Toronto, she, with her husband, now divides her time between her home in Ottawa and a log cabin in West Quebec. A lover of the outdoors, she can often be found roaming the surrounding forests or canoeing the waterways. Because of this love for the untamed wilds she decided that she would bring its seductive allure alive in her writings.

[LC Reading]

Lots to enjoy about this. Meg Harris is an engaging and interesting character, the setting is really interesting, and the writing and plotting is great and interesting. I have a lot of questions about Meg's past beyond her evil ex-husband (did she have a job? Why, exactly, did she move to this isolated place?) but I'm thinking the other novels in the series might come back to that. The novel could have been a bit shorter/tighter, but it wasn't that big a deal to me.

Overall, I'd recommend it, and happy to have found another good Canadian mystery series to follow.

[Elizabeth]

I liked this book quite well. The main character does not always make the best choices and there were times when I wanted to shake her because she was being so dumb but the plot was interesting and spanned back into her family's past - which is always fascinating. Also there was quite a bit about the local tribe.

[Veronica]

I found the plot in this novel to be very interesting. However, the characters were not. Most of them, especially Meg, was poorly created. Eric was the only realistic character. The dialogue at times was very stilted and wooden. The physical book itself was awkward to open to read the inner edge of the page. Not enough margin was created for it to be put together.

[Canuck Mom of Three]

This was a great debut novel, well written and well plotted, and I especially enjoyed the final revelation in the last chapter. The only quabble I have is that the action was rather slow and the stakes took too long to develop - the first murder happens too late in the book, and this might cause some readers to stop reading before the book gets more exciting.

[Sheri Anderson]

Good mystery. Love the location descriptions.

[Carol Noll]

This was not the greatest writing style ever, but it was a good story and got better and better as it went along. I will most likely read some of the other Meg Harris mysteries.

[P.J. Coldren]

quit page 174

[Carleen Hickey]

well written

[Scott]

A decent start.

[Susan]

Hmmm... What to say about this book?

I ended up enjoying the end more than the beginning. Once I figured out that the book was set several decades in the past I enjoyed it more as that time setting explained many of the irritations that I had with the book. For at least the third-half of the book when I thought the book was from current times, I found that it read fairly 'American' - using 'Indian' to describe First Nations and aboriginal peoples, citing distances in miles, the casual sexism, and the continuous use of the word 'eh' in the way that Americans do when trying to imitate Canadians rather than the way that we Canadians use it ourselves (OK, that last bit had nothing to do with time setting and did continue to irritate me). The difference of decades explained a great deal and really ought to have been made more clear from the start of the story.

Aside from the time misunderstanding, I also had difficulty getting into the book because I did not particularly warm-up to the protagonist, Meg Harris. She reads like oatmeal (an image that frequently flitted through my mind while reading). Meg is 'there' but has no real oomph. Now me, I think oatmeal makes a solid breakfast but I prefer to add something to it to give it a bit of zing that it would otherwise might not have - some apples and cinnamon, some bananas and brown sugar, dried fruit and nuts. Who knows? But definitely something to make it less bland and add a bit of texture and interest. Meg seemed like oatmeal with no additions. She does not seem to do anything except hang around the house she inherited from her aunt - she lives in the Quebec wilderness but seems to fear it and understand very little of it (really, who could live there and not go outside often enough to even get the basics?). In fact, she had lived sometime in that home and seemed to not even have explored that indoor space. Really, what did she do with all of that time? Meg is a solid, oatmeal character. Benign, there, no extra flavours or interest. Admittedly, I did warm-up to the book (still not so much Meg) a bit more when I stopped trying to figure her out and concentrated just on the story (a bit difficult as she is also the narrator).

But, even though I found there was no real zing in the protagonist/narrator, and a few other irritations with the book along the way, I think I will give the second of the series a go just to see where it goes... I think many series do get better after the first book and am curious enough about this one to see if it does too.