Cases to close, issues to resolve
The Book of Gronsky
by Bill Engleson
Altona: Friesen Press, 2026
$26.95 / 9781038360816
Reviewed by Ace Baker
*
If you’re a writer, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself in The Book of Gronsky, by Bill Engleson. If you’re a reader, you’ll learn about what it’s like to bare your soul on the page while enjoying a short crime novel as well.
Just as he did with The Life of Gronsky, Engleson weaves two tales together.
In the first part of the weave, the focus is on Gil Gronsky, now a new author with a published book. Whereas the first novel highlighted the effort it takes to get enough words on the page for a book-length work, in The Book of Gronsky Gil learns how to market and promote his new work while writing another crime story. He learns to navigate the politics of a book launch, a writing conference, and a writing panel.
His own personal life becomes more complex as well. His one-time renter, Miriam, has become his wife. He is now a married man, a published author, and a grandfather attempting to create a solid relationship with Anthea, a granddaughter he never knew existed. Anthea’s own character arc shows her led and manipulated during her early childhood and moving from life in a hippie cult to making decisions of her own, including the choice of a significant other.
Alternating chapters reveals Night Wounds, the crime novel Gronsky is writing. His detective, Danny Hawkins, has aged eleven years since the tale told in the first book, Scratch an Old Wound. His life grows more complex, and like Gronsky—who discovers more about himself as a writer, husband, and father—Hawkins is also a married man now, navigating life as a detective, husband, and father. He improves his skills, allowing him to take on more complicated cases. One of them involves a past cult headed by the enigmatic Brother XII and his followers, “The Chosen.” The cult Anthea was once involved in leads Gronsky to include cult activity in his novel. Throughout the telling of both tales, the parallels are carefully created.
There other elements woven together as well, including real-world issues balanced with humour. One way Engleson reminds readers they are in present day in the life of Gronsky is by including news events ranging from Middle East violence, the Israel-Gaza war, the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and Trump himself. In Danny Hawkins’ world, Engleson chooses the Red Scare, the Cold War, and Tommy Douglas and the CCF to situate us decades farther back. It’s another way of differentiating the two tales being told.
These serious issues are buoyed by humour. As Gronsky pontificates about the lack of reading and readers, he acknowledges the fact that “libraries had computers, movies, magazines, newspapers and public washrooms, so they would continue to be useful.” He continues to use invented language as well. In the first novel, he includes the term “novelcro”—toss words at a page and see what sticks. In The Book of Gronsky, you’ll discover gems like “Roofians” and “MooDisaster.” These humorous, anti-climactic moments are often inserted carefully to back off the pressure and suspense before ramping it up again.
There are times in the novel when some events seem a little too coincidental. Anthea just happens to meet Tree Leaf, a woman she grew up with in her hippie cult, who is now a published author and speaker, at Gronsky’s writer’s conference. A past villain in Danny Hawkins’ earlier life in Montreal turns out to live in the same small city he does now—Nanaimo. Hawkins has gone from Montreal to Manitoba to Nanaimo, and a gangster from the first book he has unresolved issues with turns up in that exact city at that exact time.
There are some important differences too, a key one being that while his fictional detective understands that “no one could be trusted,” Gronsky has to learn to share more truths about himself and his life with loved ones to solidify relationships with Miriam and Anthea. While Hawkins’ life is on the line often, the most Gronsky risks is humiliation at public events where he is expected to speak. There is not the same buildup or payoff for an “outcome” in his own life compared to the life of his detective. Even when Anthea becomes involved in a fairly serious political protest, the issue is laid to rest quickly and easily. Granted, it is not the focus of the novel.
With many lives, heroes and villains, in real life and in the world of fiction, it is sometimes difficult for the author to tie up loose ends. As The Book of Gronsky and Night Wounds near their climactic conclusions, there is a bit of deus ex machina that makes an appearance—a convenient car crash that seems to happen for no apparent reason other than ending the life of a character. The weather is fine. There is no car chase. There are no suicidal tendencies. Boom—dead. It’s not integral to the telling of either tale, but it is a bit convenient.
Tying it all together are Gronsky’s philosophical thoughts about life, which continue to grow and change as he does. By the end of the novel, he mentions how “life was full of endings—friendships, thoughts, loves, beginnings and endings, some planned, many left for fate to decide, to decree.” It’s a fitting summary for the lives of characters in both tales, with a focus on character in the building of Gronsky’s present day life, and a focus on plot in the fictional life of Danny Hawkins.
In The Book of Gronsky, if writers read slowly, they will discover hidden connections and careful layering. If readers explore the tale quickly, they will enjoy a tale well told.
The weave works.
*
Ace Baker is the author of two short story collections, How to Make a Killing Jar and Bathing in Fire, and a chapbook of poetry, Mosaic: Bright Lives, Broken. His poetry and prose have won numerous awards and have been nominated for the Atwood-Gibson Fiction Prize, the Journey Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and National Magazine awards, among others. [Editor’s note: the review of The Book of Gronsky is Ace’s first contribution to BCR, and we’re happy to publish it.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors: Trevor Marc Hughes (nonfiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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