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The White Ribbon Man

By: Mary Lou Dickinson

Inanna Publications. 2018

Mary Lou Dickinson’s fourth book is a mystery, “The White Ribbon Man.” Set in Toronto, this book highlights a city that has become one of the most diverse and interesting cities in the world!

In “The White Ribbon Man,” a woman who walks into a church to use the washroom sees a terrifying scene. On the floor, she sees legs sticking out of one of the washroom’s stalls.

The woman screams

There is no identification, just an empty purse.

What happened to the dead woman?

Who are the people in this church on a November Sunday morning? And how do they react?

Read Dickinson’s mystery to find out.

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Brief synopsis:

The White Ribbon Man is a murder mystery set in Toronto. A woman’s body is found in the basement washroom of a downtown church. It is an Anglican church that welcomes homeless people for coffee and soup and it has a congregation made up largely of social activists. During the investigation, the reader gets to know something about the minister, an unlikely suspect, whose sleepwalking then casts suspicion on him. There is also a librarian who answered the classified ad in the Globe &Mail placed by another suspect. One of the wardens is an activist against violence against women and another parishioner was the neighbor and friend of the murdered woman.

The detective in charge of the investigation, Jack Cosser, is a very appealing character. Other members of the congregation and the caretaker play minor but interesting roles as do members of the victim’s family. Her parents and brother are Jehovah’s Witnesses and the victim was defellowshipped from that church when she left her family as a teenager. It is ironic that the victim’s body is found in a church, the last place she would want to be.

Since this is a congregation made up of many activists, people of all sorts are welcomed. In addition to the issue of violence against women, the issues of racism and homophobia come up. One member is lesbian, another is gay. The member of the congregation who saw the killer with the body is a woman with cerebral palsy who has great difficulty communicating.

The mystery aspect has just the right timing and complexity to keep one turning pages. The murder causes people who once were comfortable with each other to become suspicious instead. Potential murderers range from Marni’s circle, the victim’s former husband to the church’s minister to a man who placed a personal ad that Marni had answered. In addition, the gentle handling of all these characters and their issues is very satisfying. The reader sees the humanity and vulnerability of each one and the way in which, as a community, they support one another.