Who By Fire by Greg Rhyno

The subtitle of Who By Fire, “A Dame Polara Mystery,” might conjure in the reader’s mind a dowager member of the aristocracy solving crimes in a cozy manner across the English countryside, circa 1920. The hero of Greg Rhyno’s new novel is nothing like that, and the story is definitely not cozy. Dame finds herself in a position that many people her age find themselves these days. What was once considered a good job, in her case a position at city hall, is not enough to compete with the high cost of living in a city like Toronto. She is also recently divorced, so short one income and finding herself in a precarious housing situation. So, for the daughter of the famous PI “Dodge” Polara, when the chance to earn some extra cash using the skills she learned from her dad comes up, how could she not take it?

Facing eviction, she convinces her landlord to hire her to gather evidence on his wife, who he suspects of having an affair. Since her father’s career as a PI is the stuff of local legends in Toronto, the landlord agrees to bring the famous Dodge Polara onboard, though what he is really getting is Dodge’s protégé. What starts as a simple tailing job to gather some “gotcha” evidence turns into a hunt for an arsonist that causes Dame to risk her job, her friendships and her life.

Dame Polara is clever and quick, soft-hearted and hard-edged, with that down-on-her-luck backstory that drives a hero forward. It’s her backstory and the hardships she has endured that make her interesting, relatable, and immune from genre clichés. There is a messy, uncomfortable truth to Dame and the supporting cast, something I expect more from the work of Zadie Smith or Mavis Gallant than a mystery novel. Skillfully-placed flashbacks of her father training her, and the pieces we learn about her mother, a crusading investigative reporter who was killed under mysterious circumstances, add an extra dimension to the novel and the character.

Rhyno breaks the mystery novel rule of giving us a body within the first 50 pages. But his blend of steadily raising the stakes for his characters and short, punchy chapters often punctuated with clever lines or tense moments will keep the reader turning pages. The front half brings the suspense of a Rollercoaster climbing towards its peak, then the back-end rockets towards a pulse-pounding conclusion. In defying genre conventions, Rhyno delivers a wholly intriguing mystery unlike any other.

In defying genre conventions, Rhyno delivers a wholly intriguing mystery unlike any other.

The relatability of the characters, the settings and the stakes, lulls the reader into a false sense of comfort. This is not a twisting tale of espionage or a journey up the rungs of the mob or a murderous secret society. Rhyno doesn’t cheat the plot or the characters by relying on the shortcuts familiar to mystery readers. He puts in the work and it pays off. It’s the everydayness of much of the story that allows Rhyno to execute a masterful bait-and-switch of plotting, easily equal to the great twists of the grand masters of the mystery and thriller genres.

Chock-full of Canadiana, the title itself a Leonard Cohen tune, it was a treat to revisit classic cultural phenomena such as Degrassi Junior High, Polka Dot Door and Anne Murray. Could the next book in the series be ‘Snowbird’ or ‘Cotton Jenny?’ Whatever the title, I hope we don’t have to wait long for the next Dame Polara Mystery.

Greg Rhyno’s debut novel, To Me You Seem Giant, was nominated for a ReLit Award and an Alberta Book Publishing Award. His writing has appeared in a number of journals including Hobart, Riddle Fence, and Prism International. He completed an MFA at the University of Guelph and lives with his family in Guelph, Ontario.

Publisher: Cormorant Books (April 20, 2024)
Paperback 8″ x 6″
ISBN: 9781770867420

Jeff Dupuis

Website

Jeff Dupuis is a writer and editor living in Toronto. He is the author of The Creature X Mystery novels and numerous short stories, which have been published in The Ex-Puritan and The Temz Review among others. Jeff is the editor, alongside A.G. Pasquella, of the anthology Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food, which will be published in 2025 by Dundurn Press.