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The Loon's Song: A Wynter Island Mystery

By: Kim Herdman Shapiro
Publisher: Level Best Books
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
ASIN: B0CW1KRY8Y
Reviewed by: Lily Andrews
Review Date: April 3, 2024

The Loon's Song: A Wynter Island Mystery by Kim Herdman Shapiro is an intriguing mystery that centers on a celebrity whose troubles began when she confessed her desire to change her ways and make amends with her former adversaries. The ramifications of this decision are the main focus of this gripping tale.

At CWYN, the new community television station, the station manager Kate Zoë Thomas, station owner Gwen Wynter, and program host Selesia were all taken aback when popular actress Rose Morgan, also known as Rosalie Morgann, insisted on being interviewed first rather than their planned guest for their upcoming television show, Vox Pop. Superb beauty, unimaginable wealth, and global recognition characterized Rosalie, a local girl turned Hollywood celebrity. Instead of asking nicely for an interview, she demanded the interview and even went so far as to send out a press release announcing herself as the first guest on Vox Pop to all of the main media websites in Southwest British Columbia.

Rosalie is remembered by most islanders as a troubled young woman who lost her parents when she was a young girl. She fled the island when she was a teenager, having managed to end many marriages in an apparent attempt to exact revenge for not being helped out of her situation. Nobody knew where she lived until they saw her in a soap opera on television. Selesia was Rosalie's close friend at the time, but the latter had tricked her with falsehoods and dishonesty about her then-fiancee, Rick, which led to the dissolution of their union. After all that agony, one can easily guess that Selesia would never want to interview her, right?

Finally the day of the show Vox Pop's debut arrives, but something unexpected and tragic was about to unfold. Something that Selesia could never have anticipated happening on her debut show. Within seconds of her fervently desired interview, the well-known star was on the verge of dying. Was Rosalie unwell before she walked in, or did someone at the station poison her for whatever purpose, as the inquiry headed by Staff Sergeant Singh appeared to indicate?

This book does a great job of giving curious readers a background of historical information on living at Wynter Island, British Columbia, which will help them look for likely reasons for the disastrous occurrence that was caught on live television. In the first few chapters, the author presents a high-stakes quandary that eventually puts the decent characters in danger at the expense of genuinely selfish individuals. As the plot develops, she skillfully twists things up by bringing in a new character who knows the very likable protagonist extremely well and who reveals a shocking episode that would probably make readers begin to question her morals.

This well-written, tightly-plotted mystery novel will intrigue readers with how much is packed into just a few hundred pages. The cast of well-developed and diverse characters includes the austere Staff Sergeant Singh and the mysterious sponsor who threatens to dash the protagonist's hopes for success in her career. The nicely rendered insights from the Buddhist philosophy will enthrall readers, as will the exquisitely rendered settings.

Quill says: This book's real power is the tension it manages to build. The build-up is powerful, like a little campfire that progressively intensifies into a conflagration that threatens to consume the forest.

For more information on The Loon's Song: A Wynter Island Mystery, please visit the author's website at: https://www.kimhshapiro.com/