That Recoil of Nature

That Recoil of Nature is a work of literary fiction with all the compelling elements of a good mystery. Echoing throughout this story are the similarities and conflicts between two generations - shaped by very different wars - around the ethics of violence, gender politics, and the nature of responsibility.
The novel follows the story of a university student in 1972 - the poet and pacifist, Lawrence MacQuigau - as he discovers the events that embroiled his late mother Maddy, a doctor, twenty years before in the isolated northern village of Wegebow. Her patient, Emelie Gagnon, was slowly being murdered by an abusive husband. Despite Maddy's efforts, the masculine authority in the village refused to intercede, believing in a man's right to rule over his family. Because Emelie was without other family and had lost hope for own survival, Maddy felt that she must protect her.
The violence that began in Wegebow will soon take over Lawrence's life, threaten his convictions (and his daughter), and compel him to act when he discovers the connections between the events in Wegebow and his mother's death.
Craig Grimes is an unusual writer. Although ostensibly crime stories, his novels are not formulaic mysteries or police procedurals. No Viable Option, for example, includes political satire and cultural commentary. Grimes often employs devices like multiple points of view, and shifts in narrative voice and time.