D.A. Keeley provides a mystery that is timely and gripping in “Destiny’s Pawn,” just published by Midnight Ink. In this third installment in Keeley’s series featuring Maine border-patrol agent Peyton Cote, Peyton finds a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy on the Canadian border.
The boy tells Peyton in imperfect English that his father has sent him to live with his aunt in Maine in light of the disastrous state of his home after the Russian invasion.
Peyton is sympathetic to the child, who isn’t much older than her own son. Nevertheless, as a border agent she is required to find out how he managed to come so far; the federal government wonders whether he may be the first of many Ukrainian refugees making the trek.
Young Aleksei evokes suspicion by refusing to divulge any details about his journey and the person or persons who brought him to the United States. His aunt clearly knows something about the trip, but she feigns ignorance.
To complicate matters further, Aleksei’s father journeys from Ukraine to visit his son — and the reader and Peyton soon realize that the child is being used in some mysterious way by his relatives. His arrival in the country is oddly tied to a crime in the distant past.
Author D.A. Keeley, who lives in Gill and teaches at Northfield Mount Hermon, weaves a riveting tale, intertwining the perspectives of Peyton, Aleksei’s father, Aleksei’s American cousin, and a mysterious Russian family with a history of money and violence.
As in the previous two novels, Peyton Cote emerges as a rounded character. She is devoted to her job yet fiercely attached to her son.
Her current romance is blooming, but her son isn’t entirely sure he wants a new man moving in with him and his mother, who have been on their own since Peyton’s divorce from her ex-husband years earlier.
Keeley manages to give readers just enough information to keep us guessing as the narrative unfolds. The characters in “Destiny’s Pawn” deal with the stuff of real life: identity, career fulfillment, love of money, love of family, and love of art.
We see into their heads and hearts — and realize that even the worst of the “bad guys” in this story deserves understanding if not empathy, not just from Peyton Cote but from us as well.
“Destiny’s Pawn” deserves the clichéd term “page turner.” I read it quickly on a warm Saturday morning with great pleasure.
“Destiny’s Pawn” is available at the World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield, where D.A. Keeley will hold a book signing within the next few months.
Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” Visit her website: www.TinkyCooks.com