In her seventh appearance as Canada’s best-known amateur detective (and the recent focus of a couple of CTV movies) Joanne Kilbourn once again becomes embroiled in murder investigation. Her latest outing, in author Gail Bowen’s Burying Ariel, is set amongst a now-familiar cast of characters in Regina.

The milieu is academia, specifically the increasingly divided university political science department in which Kilbourn works. A young female academic is murdered. Swarming around the scene are a male professor facing a sexual harassment suit, young feminists hell-bent on using the victim as a symbol of male oppression, and a couple of people who looked on her as a shining star in their dark lives. And, of course, the murderer.

Bowen uses the setting to gently show the lunacy of political correctness and feminist militancy gone too far. Though her themes are fairly middle-of-the-road, her novels are quick but thoughtful reads. Even though Kilbourn is an academic involved in political circles, she’s still very down-to-earth, and her life is very ordinary – she’s a person the average reader can relate to. By introducing people and issues into Kilbourn’s world that might otherwise overwhelm a middle-class sensibility, Bowen brings marginalized characters into the mainstream. A character who’s had a sex-change operation, for instance, becomes acceptable merely because the very likable Kilbourn likes them.

Bowen also peppers the story with references to current pop culture – the latest music and the latest trends. She successfully reflects the sensibilities of middle-class Canada, while also illustrating the middle-class Canada she’d like to see – one that’s compassionate and liberal. For those yet to read a Bowen book, this one provides as good an introduction as any to the popular detective.