I’ve read most of Stephen’s non-fiction books (I call him Stephen, you see, as he was a journalism professor of mine, and that’s what we called him) and enjoyed them a great deal. This is his first foray into long-form fiction (fiction in general? I couldn’t be certain) and it’s … a little uneven, but good. It’s difficult to place it in any particular genre, but it is at heart a Halifax book, one that looks at the destruction of Africville, and the subsequent fallout, from an almost-tender point of view. It has an ensemble cast (three-four main characters), each with their own angle on the legal/political intrigue that forms the cornerstone of the plot. The characters are well-drawn and interesting (though there seem to be occasional continuity errors…) and the plot trots along at a good pace. I think someone slightly less familiar with Halifax and Nova Scotia, maybe someone less familiar with Stephen as a writer of non-fiction, might have an even better time with this book. I found myself distracted, wondering whether the episodes he described were entirely, or just partly, fiction.