Complex read takes a turn for the better

Murder mystery provides unexpected, welcome twists, Bernie Goedhart writes.

The Ruinous Sweep Tim Wynne-Jones Candlewick Press Ages 12 and older

Text on the inside cover flap of Tim Wynne-Jones’s new novel for young adults begins with the following line: “On the night Donovan Turner is thrown out of a car on a highway in the middle of nowhere, he can barely remember his own name, let alone the details of the past twentyfour hours.”

That’s a pretty good hook and an accurate description of how the story starts. But it doesn’t prepare the reader for the circuitous route Wynne-Jones takes to tell the story of 17-yearold Donovan and his girlfriend, Beatrice, and their encounter with life and death, guilt and innocence, family failings, love, hate and redemption. The awardwinning author knows how to spin a tale and in The Ruinous Sweep he crafts a contemporary murder mystery that touches on Greek mythology, a few literary references, and operates on multiple levels. It is not a simple read, but it is most definitely a rewarding one.

In fact, by the time I got to page 385 and the end of the book, I turned right back to the beginning and started reading again, eager to absorb the story in the context of now having answers to the many questions that had plagued me during the first readthrough. (Admittedly, I tend to take stories at face value, enjoying a tale more if I don’t have to analyze or second-guess too much along the way.)

Ontario-based Wynne-Jones does a great job of creating believable characters, and placing them in a setting that will seem familiar to anyone who knows the Ottawa/Perth region. The Ruinous Sweep moves at a fairly brisk pace, with its share of mini cliffhangers, and it holds the reader’s interest even as the questions start to pile up. Why was Donovan out late on that rainy night, hitching a ride from a stranger who ended up leaving him stranded on the highway? Who or what was moving under a pile of blankets in the back of the vehicle, only to emerge farther down the highway, stumble down an embankment and disappear from sight? And what about the car Donovan tried to flag down next, startling its driver, who drove off the side of the road, plunging down the embankment and landing upside down in the muck below. The driver died in the accident, but Donovan found a briefcase full of money in the car, and the story gets more exciting — and more complicated — as he makes his way toward a farmhouse and memories he didn’t even know he had. At the same time all this is playing out, Beatrice is in a hospital room, at the bedside of her severely injured friend, trying to make sense of the occasional words he mutters.

But the author has provided clues. I just missed most of them on first reading. Suffice to say, the quote from Dante’s Inferno at the front of the book is there for a reason.

I should have clued in to that part much sooner. To be honest, I still find the book’s title something of a mystery. But the cover illustration makes sense to me: Things in this book are definitely turned upside down.