THE BRUTAL HEART

by Gail Bowen

(McClelland & Stewart, 325 pages, $29.99 hardcover)

Gail Bowen fans are in for a treat with this new Joanne Kilbourn saga, again set in Regina. It's a compelling political thriller, as topical as the day's headlines and compulsive reading, even if it's your first experience with Joanne.

Imagine an upcoming federal election with a dynamic and ambitious female candidate who has been touted as a future prime minister.

Ginny Monaghan seemed the perfect package -- an Olympic gold medallist and former marketing executive, married with engaging twin daughters and serving as minister of Canadian heritage in the Conservative government.

But the picture has been abruptly altered by a messy divorce and an upcoming custody battle in which Ginny's sexual indiscretions could be made very public. She has been careless, believing she was invincible. As Bowen writes: She didn't accept that "the rules for female swashbucklers are different from the rules for men."

Acting for Ginny in the custody case is the same firm that employs lawyer Zack Shreve, a paraplegic who is also Joanne's new husband.

Bowen paints an absolutely golden picture of a birthday party Joanne throws for Zack with Regina society's most interesting people on hand.

Zack has been grieving the suicide of a fellow lawyer, Ned Osler, but is cheered by the sheer joy of spring, his wife, and the party. Then the bubble is burst when the police phone during the party to say a call girl has been murdered -- and that Zack's name is on her client list, along with that of Osler.

Bowen weaves together these two plot lines with a third that sees Joanne doing a TV project on women and politics and shadowing Ginny until election day. The story culminates in a surprising, explosive ending.

Along the way, Bowen makes pithy observations on politics, elections, lawyers, prostitutes and life in general. She has evocative ways of describing a political campaign at its highest and lowest points.

One adviser comments: "Politics is like coaching football. You have to be smart enough to know how the game is played and dumb enough to think it's important."

The book's election focus is timely, with a U.S. election due this fall and a Canadian election possible at almost any time. It ends with Canada heading again for a minority government, with the party in control decided in the West. Alberta is in the Conservative column, but British Columbia and Saskatchewan are question marks. We'll see if Bowen's fictional forecast holds true.

Willa McLean is a Kitchener writer.