Forty years ago Sally Hill Brouard had an idea for a book, but she kept it on the “back burner” for decades while she managed a full-time job and a busy household.
Last month the Nanaimo resident finally launched her crime novel, Puzzle of Pieces, at the Nanaimo North and Harbourfront Libraries. The book is now available at the Vancouver Island Regional Library, the Nanaimo Museum gift shop and Chapters.
“Since I’m 70 years old it’s pretty darn exciting because it’s something I had always wanted to do,” she said.
When she retired from her job as a paralegal, she told herself, “OK, I’m going to do it now or I’m going to shut up and abandon this project.”
“But with my husband’s encouragement and being a pipe dream I decided, ‘Hey, I’m going to do it. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I’m going to do it.’ So I did,” she said.
Hill Brouard locked herself in her office and a few weeks later Puzzle of Pieces was on paper. The book is about Elisabeth, a depressed woman working in a law office who commits “a sin and a crime” that reverses her fortunes for the better, while the man who takes the blame sees his once prosperous life in decline. The author said the book’s scenario is drawn from her experience working in a law office herself, but the characters are entirely fictional.
Hill Brouard said she was “almost doing cartwheels around the kitchen” when she heard the book was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada’s Best First Crime Novel award. She’s already at work at her next book, which she hopes to release in November.
“I started off with the premise that we all do one thing in life that changes our life forever. Sometimes it’s a good thing and sometimes it’s a bad thing,” Hill Brouard said of Puzzle of Pieces.
“Sometimes you know it right away because you puzzle over what you should do and sometimes it’s just a snap decision that you make because you’re under pressure, you have to or you don’t really consider your other options.”
Elisabeth regrets her action, but not enough to admit responsibility. The story goes on to examine the consequences of avoiding justice.
“When we have a secret, when we know we’ve done something bad and we don’t get punished for it, we punish ourselves,” Hill Brouard said.
That punishment can be overt or barely noticeable, Hill Brouard said, like withholding emotion or isolating one’s self. But sooner or later, she added, Elisabeth must face her guilt.
“Somewhere between age 50 and 60 we all know that we have to come to terms with our demons or we’re going to die unhappy. That’s basically a fact of life…” Hill Brouard said.
“So she’s being haunted by the memory of what she did and she knows that she has to do something to fix it.”
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