Police Stories

The Fifth Season

Name: The Fifth Season
Author: Don Bredes
ISBN: 9780307237859

by Don Bredes

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Overview

In Don Bredes’s Cold Comfort, Hector Bellevance left Vermont for Harvard, graduated into a job with the Boston Police Department, made detective, married, divorced, accidentally shot his partner during a raid gone bad, and then returned to Vermont because, as Robert Frost famously said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

Now, in The Fifth Season, he’s back in the town of Tipton, growing vegetables for the farmer’s market, dating Wilma Strong, the hotshot reporter for the local paper, and serving as town constable, when Marcel Boisvert—a contrary town father who, as road commissioner, maintains Tipton’s rural thoroughfares—apparently goes berserk. Hector finds the county sheriff shot dead in Marcel’s dooryard and the Tipton town clerk shot dead in her office. Marcel has disappeared.

Hector and Wilma and half of the Vermont State Police are looking for Marcel—and looking over their shoulders at the same time. The small town’s history, the complex interrelationships of people whose fathers and grandfathers were friends, and the outlaw independence of such a place all play into a tale of love, betrayal, and one very strange season.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author, Don Bredes

Don Bredes was born in New York City and attended Syracuse University, the University of California at Irvine, and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. He is the author of three previous novels, and his writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times Magazine, among others. He lives with his wife and daughter in Wheelock, Vermont.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

The idea of the big city cop who accidentally kills his partner and then shakes up his life by going back to his rural hometown receives fresh treatment in Bredes's suspense series featuring Hector Bellevance, a Harvard graduate who was a detective in the Boston police department before tragedy overtook him. In Bellevance's poignant second outing (after 2001's Cold Comfort), the author deepens an already original character, who has returned home to Tipton, Vt., where he works as town constable, grows vegetables for tourists and dates local reporter Wilma Strong. When Marcel Boisvert, a Tipton power broker, apparently goes berserk and murders two public officials, Bellevance and Wilma find all sorts of local secrets under various Vermont rocks. Though the novel is based on an actual 1997 case, Bredes manages to add a sizable amount of fictional flourish with impressive results. Agent, Howard Morhaim. (May 3) FYI: A Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Bredes is a contributor to such journals as the Paris Review and the New York Times Magazine. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A compassionate small-town constable tries to unravel a grim murder puzzle while struggling with a tough patch in his personal life. Tipton (Vt.) constable Hector Bellevance has a surprisingly eventful birthday. It begins with the discovery of a headless, handless body in the nearby woods. Later, Hector tries to intercede in the simmering feud between Vaughn Higbee and his irascible father-in-law, Marcel Boisvert. Marcel was estranged from his daughter Kathy when she died in a plane crash, and abusive to his wife Shirley, whose best friend, town clerk Ella McPhetres, has convinced her to leave him. Though Marcel loves his young grandson Marc, Vaughn keeps them apart. Hector's lover Wilma, a crack reporter for the local newspaper, breaks two pieces of important news over dinner: She's pregnant, and she's been offered a big job in Boston. Next morning, Hector discovers the body of Ella, shot to death at the town hall. He rushes to Marcel and Shirley's house, where he finds Sheriff Pete Mueller shot equally dead and no one else around. Hector assumes Marcel is the killer, but State Police, abetted by forensics tests, think Marcel may be a victim as well. Amazingly, they suspect Hector. Capping this nightmarish day, Wilma gets fired. Hector determines to solve the crime, a complex challenge. A bit overstuffed and front-loaded, but Bredes (Cold Comfort, 2001, etc.) writes superbly and creates compelling, believable characters.