Constable Arabella Dryvnsydes finds a photo at a garage sale that is linked to her family history. Her investigation into how the photo got from Extension, BC to a garage sale in Willow Point, Sask. uncovers her family history and forges stronger links with known family as well as uncovering unknown relatives. Along the way Cst. Dryvnsydes resolves modern day mysteries through her work as well as an unsolved murder mystery that is tangled up in her family history.

I reread this novel for a book club and I think I caught more of the background the second time around. This is especially true as I took a course on the history of BC between the two reads and know a bit more about early mining on Vancouver Island. Cst. Dryvnsydes family were Welsh miners who eventually ended up in Extension.

Extensions combines so many things that appeal to me; history, genealogy and mystery. It is also a plus when I can picture the locations where the action is taking place and a lot of the action in this book takes place in Vancouver. I really liked this book and have been searching for another by this author but I don't think that there is another one out yet.

I almost put the book down during the first chapter, because the writing was cheesy -- expected descriptions about appearances and connections and dialogue that was not realistic because there was so much openness and ease discussing very personal, sensitive topics. And who can have such a conversation over dinner with two little kids at the table? Not in my experience.

The writing gets better, for the most part. It occasionally flatlines again, but is interspersed with enough reasonable writing that I didn't get too upset. There are certainly golden moments, and the inconsistency makes me wonder if the book was written over a very long period of time and that some sections -- like the intro -- were harder for the author to write or added at the end to satisify an editor.

The juxtaposition of the two stories, the historical and the contemporary, does create some interesting perspective on BC's history, especially for people who know the area well. I did find it weird to know the whole story when the narrator had only pieces. Also, there was so much build up of the solved murder mystery and the exciting use of the primary sources for the history term paper that I felt let down when the abduction case took centre stage. It was like that storyline became too burdensome and the new one took its place so that the theme of family ties and babies could be highlighted.

The other part I found odd was that the narrator (author?) was so accepting of every ethnicity and way of thinking, especially new age, EXCEPT Christianity, which gets ridiculed in Laura's character. That was a skewed version of tolerance.

Oh, one more thing: the photo on the front cover is NOTHING like the described photo in the book. I wish artists would at least read the book if they are designing a jacket for it. ( )

This book caught my attention because it was The Reader's Choice for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Arabella Dryvynsydes, an RCMP officer, feels adrift after the death of her mother and a romantic breakup. By chance she finds a photograph of her grandmother and her twin sister at a garage sale in rural Saskatchewan. Arabella sets out to discover how the photo, taken 100 years earlier on Vancouver Island, found its way there. She also acquires a few letters written by her great-grandmother to her siblings in Wales, letters in which she describes the poverty and loneliness of life in a Vancouver Island mining town. Gradually Arabella uncovers family secrets as she also solves crime cases.

A problem with the book is the many chance occurrences and coincidences. The plot seems less driven by character than by a plot graph developed by the author. All of Arabella's encounters and experiences connect somehow to her search for information about her maternal ancestors. For example, she takes a history course, although she had never previously shown much interest in academics, and, conveniently, she is able to use her great-grandmother's letters for a term paper and eventually to solve a historical mystery. One of the letters, to which she gains access only towards the end of the book, helps her to solve a murder she is investigating.

Many of the characters are sketched in broad strokes and are unconvincing. People keep secrets and fabricate lies with insufficient motivation to justify their actions. A couple of great-aunts are totally vindictive and malicious and seem to have no redeeming qualities, while another is too good to be true. Several relatives are so lacking in ordinary human curiosity that they don't read family documents bequeathed to them; that total lack of interest means secrets remain buried even longer, only to be uncovered by Arabella of course.

The theme is rather obvious: "we are never as far removed from one another as we like to think" (247). In case the reader fails to understand, an explanation is given: "And what was I but an extension, through Dad, of [my paternal grandmother]. Just as this elderly cousin coasted on what her mother had gone through and passed on, so were our comfortable lives determined by what [my grandmother] had borne, distilled, and set in motion . . ." (245).

I did enjoy reading about the history of mining on Vancouver Island; about this history I knew virtually nothing, and the book has inspired me to do some further research.

The mechanical construction of the plot and the flawed characterization leave no doubt that this is a debut novel. It may have won the Reader's Choice Award, but I suspect that win was more the result of an organized voting campaign than the literary merits of the book itself.