Not my favourite by this author, I ended up closing it in frustration about halfway through. There are only so many soap-opera-like break ups in conversations I can stand before it gets too much. Why did Caddie disappear? Why won't she tell anyone who the father of her child was? What's the scoop with the half-told secrets everywhere? Why does no one ever come right out and say anything, even about things in the far past?

Seems to me a book that could do with some editing. Lost track of he storyline what with all the stuff about Vietnam and Iraq and so forth. Too much proselytizing for me. I prefer when the story makes the point a bit less heavy-handedly. ( )

I received a free copy of this novel through the goodreads first reads program.
This book was not what I expected. It was not really a mystery, but a drama, where an ex-corrections officer is in a dilemma where he wants to make good, but everyone around him wants him to leave it be.

This novel follows Tony Breau, a retired corrections officer, who moves back to his home town hot on the heels of his divorce. He's seeking solitude and peace but ends up getting a whole lot more than he bargained for when an ex-con with personal ties gets arrested for murder and looks to him for help. The victim is the granddaughter of his old flame, and with lust and the community on one side, and his conscious on the other we witness Tony's struggle to do the right thing.

All the characters in this novel are flawed human beings; some are trying to find redemption, while others loudly defend their obnoxious behaviour. Throughout this book many questions arise such as: Where is justice? What is punishment? Who is/is not culpable? What is community? Where is truth? These questions will make you think.
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This book just didn't grab me. There were several story lines but I felt that none of them were taken to a satisfactory conclusion. It was also incredibly slow at the beginning with the character development of Tony. I didn't need to read 100 pages to establish that his character was a sad, broken man. The second half of the book was better pace wise but again, I felt like the author began several different lines but then didn't carry them through all the way. And sorry but I predicted the plot twist. Not one of my favourites. ( )

Tony Breau's career as a corrections officer has ended in the wake of an incident that resulted in the death of an inmate. Guilt-ridden, he has returned to his Nova Scotia home, in the village of St. Ninian. Awaiting him there are various friends and neighbours as well as ghosts from his past: Catherine Stewart (Caddy), with whom many years earlier he was in love but who left town one day without explanation, Neil MacDonald, a tormentor from his school days, and Dwayne Strickland, a much younger local man whose criminal actions led him to cross paths with Tony in his professional capacity. Dwayne is a charming manipulator, an ex-con who knows how to read people and push their buttons. When Tony arrives in St. Ninian Dwayne is living on his own in his family's old house and building a reputation among local youth as the go-to for drugs. Unfortunately for him a girl has died of an overdose under his roof--Mary Stewart, Caddy's grand-daughter--and he has been charged with murder, and because of their shared history he seeks out Tony for advice and for testimony on his behalf. However, the facts of the case are inconclusive, and when it comes down to the crunch the case is thrown out for lack of evidence before it can go to trial. With Strickland free and the girl's death unresolved, Tony finds himself at the centre of a volatile mix of emotion, accusation and speculation, all of which contribute--in a series of troubling and tragic events that as the story moves forward begin to carry the weight of inevitability--to the book's searing climax. In the world that Linden MacIntyre conjures in this novel truth is layered and multi-faceted: the deeper you dig the more you find, but even when you hold it in your hand it changes appearance depending on the angle of the light. Morally compromised and struggling with an array of demons, Tony Breau attracts our sympathy even while we acknowledge his many personal weaknesses and the numerous poor choices he's made in his life and continues to make in the pages of this book. Punishment can be enjoyed as a crime thriller, but it is one that probes human motivation in unsentimental fashion and unflinchingly demonstrates that secrets and lies long past can have far-reaching consequences. ( )

A bit of a rambling book and more of a commentary on a complicated situation than conclusive. A very satisfying read though I must add. Interestingly I could almost hear in my mind the dulcet tone of the author reading it to me! ( )