Robert Lui, a detective with the Vancouver Police Department, has left the Gang Taskforce to return to the duller but supposedly safer work of the Major Crimes Unit. Assigned to the benign west side of Vancouver, he didn’t expect to be breaking up fights between developers or finding body parts in the ponds of local horticultural attractions. Nor did he expect to be entangled in a revenge drama playing itself out across the city’s southside.
Motives are hard to fathom, and victims have nothing in common, leaving Robert’s small team perplexed. They are also learning to be wary if they ever scrape up enough money to enter the housing market. On the plus side, they are spending time in one of the nicer environments on offer in the city, even if circumstances might be deadly.
Content Warning: This is a revenge thriller, and contains several scenes of violence, including harm to a dog, murders, and a suicide.
Robert Lui, a detective with the Vancouver Police Department, has left the Gang Taskforce to return to the duller but supposedly safer work of the Major Crimes Unit. Assigned to the benign west side of Vancouver, he didn’t expect to be breaking up fights between developers or finding body parts in the ponds of local horticultural attractions. Nor did he expect to be entangled in a revenge drama playing itself out across the city’s southside.
Motives are hard to fathom, and victims have nothing in common, leaving Robert’s small team perplexed. They are also learning to be wary if they ever scrape up enough money to enter the housing market. On the plus side, they are spending time in one of the nicer environments on offer in the city, even if circumstances might be deadly.
Content Warning: This is a revenge thriller, and contains several scenes of violence, including harm to a dog, murders, and a suicide.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Thirty Years Ago
The boy bounced downstairs early one morning after showering, to get some breakfast before school. He walked by the den, then slowed as he saw his dad sprawled on the couch in front of the television, seemingly asleep. The television was off. There was an empty glass on the coffee table paired with an equally empty pill bottle.
“Hey Dad, did you sleep down here last night?” No answer. He went over and shook his dad’s arm. It felt cold. No response. He started to feel ill. He walked slowly back up the stairs to his parent’s bedroom, uncertain what was wrong. He stopped at the partially open door. “Mom, Dad’s not moving.”
“What do you mean?” came a groggy reply. “Where is he?” Then came a louder reply as his mother woke up. “Where is he?” she shrieked. The boy started to cry.
“He’s downstairs in front of the TV. He’s not moving, Mom.”
His mother ran out of the room and down the stairs. Then the screaming started. “Call 911, now!”
His mother cried and quietly moaned that day, not understanding what happened or why. The boy surely did not understand what happened to his father. The call to the police, the arrival of the paramedics, the questioning looks from their neighbours, all of it a living nightmare. Then nothing for a while.
He stayed home from school. The neighbours avoided talking to the remaining family. Their friends did not know what to do any more than the boy and his mother did. Grief counselling was a thing for the future, and there wasn’t much family left to help console them.
When the banks came calling, the boy’s mother slowly realized that their whole life had been mortgaged by her husband. She had no idea whether it was stupidity, bad luck, or something more sinister. The bank foreclosed on their home while all the other family property, including a shopping plaza and a few older apartment buildings, was somehow not theirs anymore. Instead, it belonged to someone else.
After his mother explained things to the boy, he considered this and realized that someone had tricked his father. He made a vow to himself to find out who had done it. Then he would exact revenge for his family.
A revenge tale spanning Vancouver's grit and glamour, The Chapel of Retribution by Glenn Burwell follows Detective Robert Lui and his team as they grapple with a series of unsettling incidents in a large botanical garden. Recently transferred to Major Crimes from the Gang Taskforce, Robert must contend with a new boss and the politics of engaging with the powerful developer community, while still grieving the death of his wife and being a single parent to two teens. It is clear that someone wants to ruin Eden Gardens and its owner, Sam Greene, but the motive - and the perpetrator - prove difficult to identify. As the team works doggedly to uncover both, things escalate.
The architectural background of author Burwell serves him well in setting the foundations of the story. He has a deep understanding of the development industry, its players, and its impacts, which shows through in both character and plot. His experience also yields clear, easily visualized pictures of Vancouver. His descriptions of the city are engaging, and evoke the tension of a changing metropolis struggling with wealth and poverty, which underscores the pressure on Robert and his officers as they delve into the shadows of the property development world.
Robert Lui is a strong lead, thoughtful and methodical, two traits that serve him well with this puzzle. He is protective of his people, taking responsibility when a member of his team may end up in hot water, and is liberal in recognizing and praising good work. Most of this time, he chooses to be the one to deal directly with his superior, aware that Steve Christie has reached his level of incompetence as head of the unit, shielding the team from Christie. Outside of work, Robert makes time for his children, ensuring he is home for the evening meal most days and that he is there to get them off to school in the morning. He also regularly consults Susan, his deceased wife, about the kids, carrying on an imagined conversation to solicit her advice on concerns his has about them. Robert is an interesting and sympathetic character, worth getting to know better in future books.
Camille Laurent is also an interesting character, who unfortunately is not as well developed as Robert. One of the officers assigned to Robert's team, Camille is a French Canadian transplant formerly with the Montreal police who quickly establishes herself as smart and hard-working, and while there are hints she is equal in skill to Robert it is not fully showcased. Burwell relies on a tired trope here, as he does with the incompetent, interfering superior officer: Camille and Robert share a mutual attraction. Although this offers some interesting possibilities, Camille deserves to be developed further into the strong, effective character she shows glimmers of here.
The book is particularly good at capturing the necessity of the daily grind of police work to get to a result. And it wasn't boring. Surprisingly, the best part of the story is after the perpetrator is identified. The work of tying all the loose ends together is not often shown in novels, and this is a delightful addition. Unfortunately, the beginning of the book is not as effective. There is an unnecessary prologue, which does not add to the story in any way.
Overall, The Chapel of Retribution is a bit of a slow burn that is definitely worth reading. With strong lead characters and a puzzle that is solved by determined police procedure rather than the opaque working's of a super sleuth's mind, it is a satisfying read. This is an approach that, with some further character development, can yield a solid, pleasurable series.