‘Caught’ by Lisa Moore

With a whole lot more plot, this is a very different book than Moore’s last one. It’s a suspenseful page turner while February was much more an historical Newfoundland story and an exploration of grief and loss. February won Canada Reads  last year.

‘Caught’ tells the story of a man who escapes from jail and flees across country, not to change his name and disappear, but to finish the massive drug smuggling deal he got caught for the last time! Several times David Slaney is nearly apprehended but for some strange reason he continues to slip through and is often let go. Patterson, the troubled yet eager detective, hot on his trail, works hard tracking Slaney down, but wants to catch more than just one fish!

The plot is intriguing as it unfolds, and the story is compelling and kept my interest throughout, but I found it a bit too eloquently written for the drug dealing and suspense adventure storyline. Perhaps a literary thriller is something to be applauded! But I still can’t decide if it was that incongruity or something else that made the characters seem a bit two-dimensional to me. The book had all of the right elements, but for some reason I had a hard time engaging with it which is strange because a literary novel should be richer and go deeper. Moore’s turn of phrase is breathtaking – her observations are so precise and beautifully described. I wonder if her descriptions made me trip over the race to find out where the plot was going? Maybe her style of writing better suits the more introspective February type of novel.

Definitely a nifty new Canadian novel which many will enjoy, but despite being shortlisted for the Giller, probably won’t top the bestseller lists.