My sister gave me this novel 9 years ago. It got left behind in my mother's house when I moved out 6 years ago. Now I'll finally get around to reading it. Yay!

From Library Journal:
Mary Swann, a fictitious poet, was brutally murdered by her husband; her poems were published posthumously. Some years later, as this novel opens, a group of scholars meets for a Swann Symposium. We follow four of the participants as they prepare for the meeting: Sarah Maloney, brilliant young feminist scholar; Morton Jimroy, literary biographer; Rose Hindmarch, librarian; and Frederic Cruzzi, small-town journalist and publisher. Each distorts a different aspect of the life and work of Mary Swann. This novel delightfully satirizes academia and the literary world, wryly exploring the notion of textual criticism.

I really liked this book, because I didn't feel like Shields was trying to outsmart me with tricks and clues. It certainly was a mystery, but the characters were interesting enough to become the real focus.

Note: This novel won the Crime Writers' Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1988, and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. The Arthur Ellis Award is named after Canada's official hangmen of years past, who always went by the pseudonym.

I received this yesteday on the way to the beach
Thanks! I love Carol Shields and love mysteries so this should be great!

I am bringing this with me on trip to EU - will drop it somewhere along the way

I loved this book. Wouldn't call it a mystery exactly but excellent characters, really well written

RELEASE NOTES:

Will likely leave in the breakfast room