CYCLE A  |  Book 3

Winds of Heaven

PREVIEW | Winds of Heaven

Gina Vasari, who is failing in her chosen career as a historian, is thinking that it's perhaps time to switch fields: she could become an anthropologist.  Anthropology, as she understands it, is the scientific study of humanity.  Her first big project in her new field could be undertaken in Lucerna, the Canadian college town where she's now residing.  She could limit her study to four people.

The first is Kari LaMarca, a young woman who is newly arrived in Lucerna.  Gina has befriended her, and she worries about her.  Kari had been drawn into the work that another of Gina's friends, Lorelle Delambre, had been doing at the time of her tragic death.  (Lorelle died when she and her lesbian girlfriend fell from a cliff.)  Gina worries that Kari is now asking herself how the deaths came about.  Did the two women jump?  Or were they pushed?  Or did they suffer a tragic accident?  If Kari concludes that Lorelle was murdered, what will she do about it?  Thinking about Kari's possible responses scares Gina to death.

The second person Gina could study is Wendy Warfield.  Wendy had once been Lorelle's lover.  This was before Lorelle jilted her.  Wendy is in the habit of saying that she retaliated by murdering Lorelle.  She doesn't make a formal confession, and she makes the assertion knowing full well that the police will be unable to find evidence proving her guilt.

Person three on Gina's list is Wendy's best friend, Tamara Santillana.  Tamara is a historian, and her current project is perplexing.  It's an effort to debunk ideas she enthusiastically promoted in her earlier work.  Why on earth had she set about to do this?  Gina has no idea.  She's baffled.

The final individual on Gina's list is Malory Ballantyne.  His relationship with Kari is something that Gina, budding anthropologist that she is, would like to understand.  She sees a man who has fallen in love.  But it's love he does nothing to further.  She once asked him why.  He jokingly replied by saying that his soul was dead, and that men with dead souls shouldn't try to woo innocent young women.  It was a reply that only raised more questions.

Gina realizes that she has a lot of work ahead of her.  Studying humanity is the opposite of easy.