Slanderous Tongue

...so Mickey Spillane is Culiner's prose that you can see the cigarette bobbing in her mouth as she talks you through her village of Epineux-le-Rainsouin... But don't expect Spillanesque fisticuffs and gunshots in the night ... The mood is trè Gallic, very Georges Simenon, the watcher in the shadows cupping the cigarette in the hand to stop the glow from being reflected in the rainwater puddles... the dènouement is suppressed almost to vanishing point...

...If you love France enough to recognise that it has a seamy side, an underbelly — you'll face this book with jaunty anticipation.

... Jill Culiner has a literate, yet informal style, with a good ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for the idiosyncrasies of rural village life. Despite her quirkiness in not giving a name to her protagonist, she had me hooked by the second page.

Not simply a mystery (though the author introduces several nicely-placed red herrings), Slanderous Tongue is an insight-ful study of the manners and mores of the inhabitants of a small town, with something to say on a variety of subjects. Culiner trains her lens backwards, to explore a microcosm of the human condition. She examines the minutae of village life, the thousand and one details that, taken collectively, define people's relation to others and to the natural world around them. Focusing first on the physical changes in village life over decades, and their disruptive effects on social patterns, she turns her attention to intensive farming techniques and their impact on the environment, and concludes with a critique of our willful ignorance of the inhumane treatment of the animals that most of us rely on for food. Although Culiner may be guilty of romanticising the past, she nonetheless paints the present as it is, warts and all.

Although she is occasionally preachy, Culiner is not wrong; and although she has an unhurried approach to the telling of her tale, when she gets where she's going the reader comes away both informed and entertained.

... Jill Culiner has penned a gem of a mystery in Slanderous Tongue. A resident of both Canada and France, the author has an intimate knowledge of both the locale and the people she describes in her story. She brings her characters to life in a most satisfactory and often droll manner.

This is especially true in the case of the four local women who provide much of the gossip on which the narrator builds her case. They are the kind of women found in every country, those ever-vigilant ladies who observe and judge every aspect of their neighbors' lives from behind the safety of white curtained windows.

The reader gets a good sense of the protagonist's growing exasperation with both the people of the town and her fickle lover. Her growing disillusionment with her role as a mistress is brilliantly written, as is the author's argument that a small town serves simply as a microcosm of the larger world.

Slanderous Tongue is thoughtfully written to depict the changes wrought on local culture by society's drive towards modernism, and is the kind of mystery one can only find coming from an independent publisher with the character and credentials of Canada's Sumach Press. I highly recommend this book for discriminating readers of mystery fiction.

...crime novel Slanderous Tongue... A who-dunnit of Agatha Christie proportions, the story centers around a small village in France... What unfolds is a murder-mystery encapsulated in a larger discussion on environmentalism and animal cruelty. ...Culiner is an intelligent author... The characters are inventive and yet grounded in human truths; the writing is witty and begs to be read over and over again; the story is pristine and poignant. In and of itself, Slanderous Tongue is an interesting read, but it is Culiner's trademark styole that makes the story substantial and robust with detail... . Slanderous Tongue is both a delightful mystery and a thought-provoking examination of the old literary adage — man versus nature.

Jill Culiner has written a delightful novel packed with self-serving, quirky villagers fuelled by sexual peccadilloes, environmental activism and murder.

The first-person style is catchy... . The dialogue feels like you're leaning over the back fence involved in a time that transcends cultures and age... . The locale contains the charm one expects of a village in rural France and frames the story well. The sleuthing is well-drawn and the conclusion makes for a delightful change of pace.

... Culiner has invented a locale so rich in colour and dramatic possibilities that it merits many a return visit... .

... This character driven mystery takes place in the village of Epineux-le-Rainsouin, France. A Canadian woman lives in the village and the tale takes place through her point-of-view... .

Jill Culiner has fabricated a world where everyone has something to hide, where no one really tells the truth to anyone else. Yet every inhabitant of this small village knows the deep dark secrets, even the older women who spend their days watching the activity within the village. But the world that Culiner presents is mostly dark...there doesn't seem to be any real good, and the intensive farms surrounding the village hide hideous secrets of horrendous torture to animals. It represents something that is hidden to the world at large by the rich and greedy.

Slanderous Tongue is a peek at what is happening to change the world we know into an evil place. As people toss the "old ways" to the wind and embrace the change without questioning the results, we find our world diminishing. Culiner doesn't make us happy, but she certainly is a wizard at making us think. A stunning tale.