23.
Author(s): Rohan O'Grady
Title: Let's Kill Uncle
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 279
Genre: Fiction
Acquisition: Early Review Copy
Date Completed: March 5, 2011
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

A small island off the coast of Canada has a reputation for being cursed. Mountie Sergeant Coulter is the only son of the island to make it back alive from WWII, and now he serves as the sole judiciary force on the childless, and critically aging, piece of land.

And then, one summer, two children arrive.

Christie is a young girl whose mother has sent her away from a crowded and claustrophobic city for a summer with "the goat lady," and Barnaby is a sprite of an heir whose guardian-uncle has selected the island for its detachment from the outside world. Because, as Barnaby tries unsuccessfully to inform Sergeant Coulter, Uncle is trying to kill him in order to get his hands on Barnaby's 10-million-dollar inheritance. When the adults once again prove useless, Christie, displaying balanced childhood innocence and maliciousness, provides the perfect solution: they must simply kill Uncle first.

In retrospect, I am dissatisfied by the devices O'Grady uses to facilitate her plot; the means through which she places the children on the island, under such specific care, and with such companions as One-Ear, defy any kind of reason. However, I think it says something about the novel itself that I did not truly consider the children's guardianship throughout the narrative until after I had closed the book. Yes, the narrative has its fair share of clumsiness, ranging from the suggestion of the supernatural in an otherwise "realistic" novel to the clumsy and unsuccessful personification of One-Ear, but the development of Barnaby and Christie carries the narrative through to what I found to be an undeniable success. O'Grady has captured the multi-faceted personality traits of each young child perfectly, skillfully displaying how such children can be simultaneously sweet and repugnant, justifying malicious acts with juvenile confidence. I found the children to be both realistic and frightening.

I read the first half of the book in a single sitting, and it was with great reluctance that I had to close the book for the first time. Despite my complaints, Let's Kill Uncle is a thoroughly engaging novel, and is one I would certainly recommend.