James' Review Roundup
Thumbnail reviews of several books I read over the winter
While the winter of 2025/2026 wasn’t a bad one from the standpoint of weather (our worst storms came in March), it was one filled with the three “Rs,” reading, renovations, and retirement. These three things combined to make life interesting, and now that the retirement process and ceremonies are done with and the renovation dust has settled, let’s get to what I was reading over the past six months or so. I have already posted full reviews of other books I have read, and this post will contain “thumbnail-reviews” of other books I read, all well-written, and all deserving of attention.
SMEG by Diane Wishart (2026, Simon & Schuster)
Lately, I have been reading plenty of police procedurals as well as watching them on TV (particularly British ones). One of my favourites to watch was “New Tricks” which is about a group of retired detectives who are used by the police to investigate unsolved cases. Thus, the appeal of SMEG, the first detective Smeg mystery, as the cover informs us. Well, sign me up for any future entities in the series!
Charlie Smeg (an unfortunate but memorable surname) is a newly retired detective in Edmonton, Alberta. As the back cover copy says: “He’s looking forward to a life of solitude, a good book, and staying indoors during the winter months.” Sounds good to me; I like this Smeg guy already!
However, the story cannot end there because there would be no book. Smeg is barely retired when he is asked to come back and mentor Meaghan Byatt a young detective, new to the homicide department. Believe me, there’s nothing like a young, eager person to make you feel both old and young again. Old enough to be her father, but motivated by her enthusiasm and keen skills, Charlie is brought around to actually looking forward to working again. SMEG is marketed as “cozy-adjacent” so it’s a little rougher around the edges than your basic “cozy” which makes it more realistic.
Adding to the two main protagonists is Charlie’s stepson Paul, still living at home and unmotivated to do much with his life.
SMEG is a medium-paced read, and as investigations go, it moves slowly but surely forward with many leads to follow up on. I think Ms. Wishart is on to a good thing with SMEG.
The Innocent Canadian by John Delacourt (2026, Now Or Never Publishing)
We now move on to the years 1940-1941 in England, when the Blitz is on and London is being bombed. Things are not looking good for the Allies. Our central character, Bill Davenant, a minor diplomat working at Canada House, is a small cog in a big machine that is fueled by information: the gathering and processing of it. The Brits and the Americans (although not actively in the war yet) have their Ministries of Information and embassies and there’s plenty of covert activity and out-right spying going on. There are double agents, Nazi sympathizers, a couple of femme fatales and even some murders and attempted murders to keep things interesting. The Innocent Canadian is a literary mystery-thriller that will certainly entertain anyone with an interest in the genre. It was inspired by a true story as well. Mr. Delacourt’s writing is faultless, simply wonderful to read, but I did have difficulty keeping up with all the alliances and whose side who was on. Double-agents confused me even more. That is no fault of the author, that is all on me. There is enough intrigue in this book to keep the reader engaged until the last page, as there are several storylines happening all at once in The Innocent Canadian. Good stuff!
The Unfinished World by Marilyn Bowering (2025, Linda Leith Publishing)
Now we come to one of my favourite reads of the year. So, why not write up a full review? While The Unfinished World was a favourite read, it’s a darn difficult book to explain. I even read it twice because it’s one of those books that once you finish it, you feel like you missed a lot. Reading it again, knowing how the book ends, allowed me to focus on the nuances of the story, of which there are plenty.
The story centres around a young Pearl and her grandmother Nora. Nora runs Refuge House, a foundation in Northern BC that assists refugees in various ways. One of those ways is rescuing refugees right out of the water, as Pearl is an exceptional swimmer, which is a main theme running through the novel. Water is another, as is an affinity for animals, which is reciprocated, whether the animal is a mammal or aquatic life.
The Unfinished World is part environmental commentary, and part coming-of-age (or the becoming an adult for Pearl). Furthermore, Ms. Bowering utilizes fables (of a sort) to tell facets of Nora and Pearl’s genealogy, which is an ingenious way Nora has used to educate Pearl not only as a child (as Nora raised her), but later as a young adult, after Nora’s passing. Nora’s wish was that Pearl write down the stories as a lasting legacy. Each “fable” is a story unto itself, and after Pearl finishes writing (or typing it out on her laptop), it causes Pearl to reflect on her life and the way forward, as if Nora is still guiding her. Each story also comes with a handcrafted doll that Nora has hidden in various destinations, leading Pearl back to Refuge House, which was closed down after Nora’s death.
This is a book that needs to be experienced, I really cannot explain it competently. Words fail me. For the written word, it’s quite visual in nature, as the reader is compelled to picture various locations, time periods, and the evocative dolls as well. Just a fantastic book.
I Made a Promise I Could Not Keep: Speculative Essays by David Homel (2026, Linda Leith Publishing)
The one outlier in this collection is a book of speculative essays by David Homel, one of my favourite authors. In his forward, Mr. Homel states:
This is the charm, I’ve discovered over recent years, of writing speculative essays. Part fiction, part memoir, part investigation, I can cover any sort of terrain with them.
And he does cover quite a bit of terrain in this slender volume. The actual promise was one he made to a homicide detective early in his writing career. He promised (a “fantastic and unbelievable promise”) that a novel he was going to write would solve a murder:
“I’ll help you catch that guy with my book,” I promised him. “You’ll see. We’ll bait him and bring him in, you and me.”
He sat back in his chair, incredulous. “You mean a book can do that?”
“This one will.”
Mr. Homel then confesses to the reader: “of course, it did not.”
Many of his essays discuss aspects of his novels over the years: inspirations, their successes and their failures. He discusses the importance of family, living the writing life, and other things, always with a bit of humour, and just a touch of regret, keeping his essays from sounding melancholy. This book would especially appeal to the older man, even more so if that man were a writer, but I truly enjoyed his reminiscences as much as I enjoy reading his fictions.
About the Reviewer
James M. Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of The Seaboard Review of Books. He resides in Miramichi, New Brunswick, with his wife, Diane, their tabby cat, Eddie, and Buster, their Border Collie. Although retired, James still works an occasional shift as an MRI technologist at the Miramichi Hospital.