Crimes of Disrespect

Its the start of fall term at Woodmore Academy a private school in Oakville Ontario. Pamela Renard a brilliant Mohawk teen at Woodmore is struggling with a white racist bully her fellow student Rose Molloy. But not for long. First Pamela and then Rose show up dead in strange circumstances. Sol Fitzgerald a troubled young janitor finds Pamelas body in the schools quadrangle. She fell or was pushed from Woodmores four-storey library.A week later on Pamelas reserve - nearby Coyote River First Nation - some boys discover Roses body lying in a field. Two hunting arrows protrude from her back. Because a land-claim protest is raging at the border between the reserve and Ewing a neighbouring town the police wonder: are the two deaths connected? And could a racial tit-for-tat be behind them?Meanwhile in Oakville Sol becomes a suspect in Pamelas murder. He begins his own investigation - to avoid prosecution but more so to find Pamelas killer: he had tried to help the young scholarship student deal with Roses racist slurs and pranks. So its a big problem that Sol a binge-drinking alcoholic remembers nothing from the night Pamela died. The Halton Region police know he spent time in prison for aggravated assault. Theyre also aware he knew Pamela. With no alibi Sol is desperate to find the truth behind the killings.But Sol also wonders about the truth of Pamela and Roses rocky relationship. He hopes they might have reached a mutual respect - even grudgingly - before they died. He finds Pamelas diary and it may provide the answer.