In over two dozen previous books, John Moss has tackled the state of the Canadian novel, collated field notes on Ireland, studied the Arctic landscape, and collected some of his own short stories. Now he’s tried his hand at a mystery, the first in a new series featuring Toronto police detectives David Morgan and Miranda Quin, and the results reflect those many years Moss spent writing about so many different topics. 

In part this is because Moss has invested a great deal of energy fleshing out his main protagonists, showing how their 10-year partnership is as complex as a marriage (but almost devoid of sexual tension) and developing the telling details that mark Morgan and Quin as individuals. But it’s also because once the setup – the discovery of a high-powered lawyer floating dead in a Rosedale koi pond and the mysterious appearance of his mistress at the crime scene – is complete, Moss dispenses with conventional police procedure in favor of examining truly dark and disquieting paths.

The prevailing theme in Still Waters is the way misunderstanding both results from and begets violence. This is never clearer than in an extended description of a rape, which is made horrifying by its flat narration and by the victim’s stubborn belief that she bears some blame for the act. There are shifting identities, repressed memories, and red herrings, but above all there’s a sense of how family bonds are irrevocably corrupted from one generation to the next, and how only outside influences can force new bonds to anneal.

As a crime novel, Still Waters is uneven and doesn’t balance horror and compassion as well as it should, but John Moss is off to a good start, and Morgan and Quin are promising and appealing protagonists worth following in future books.