The Front of Yonge Library

"A Violent End" by Maggie Wheeler

Maggie Wheeler has created an intriguing combination of historical perspective and modern day mystery. The novel is set in the Lost Villages of the St. Lawrence Seaway inundated as a result of the Hydro project which enlarged the seaway in the 1950's. The author brings an appreciation of the psychosocial trauma experienced by the families that lost their homes, their communities and their sense of self. For Front of Yonge residents, the historical background is particularly poignant — these are our neighbours just down the 401 corridor; the characters and scenes are hauntingly familiar.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Stratton