No Quarter

In Tildon, Ontario, a prime vacation spot for Canada's wealthy, a businessman is discovered dead inside a flaming car. Following this horrific act, Deacon Riis, the town's only journalist, finds himself at the center of a strange conspiracy literally to light the town on fire. As other members of the town are caught up in the increasing violence and depravity, Deacon discovers that the acts are all linked to the writings of his foster father, a man whose novels depicted humanity at its most disturbed. No Quarter has the skeleton of a thriller, but author John Jantunen consistently zigs where other narratives would zag, creating a story that is far stranger and disturbing.

No Quarter is meta-textual, to say the least. There are stories within stories, retellings of the characters' lives in the style of George Cleary, whose work is at the heart of the killings. Jantunen juggles multiple narrators, having them cross at both expected and strange angles. Since Tildon is a small town, it's no wonder that the characters know each other, but as their pasts and motives are revealed, their connections deepen in ways that border on the supernatural.

By the end, far more questions have been raised than answered, which is fitting for the start of a projected series, the Tildon Chronicles. One motif of the novel is people endlessly re-reading George's books, finishing the last one only to immediately pick up the first. It's too bad Jantunen's readers can't do the same and find out what it all means--at least not yet. --Noah Cruickshank, adult engagement manager, the Field Museum, Chicago, Ill.

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