We Were The Salt Of The Sea by Roxanne Bouchard – Translated by David Warriner – Blog Tour Review.

About the Book

As Montrealer Catherine Day sets foot in a remote fishing village and starts asking around about her birth mother, the body of a woman dredges up in a fisherman’s nets. Not just any woman, though: Marie Garant, an elusive, nomadic sailor and unbridled beauty who once tied many a man’s heart in knots. Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales, newly drafted to the area from the suburbs of Montreal, barely has time to unpack his suitcase before he’s thrown into the deep end of the investigation. On Quebec’s outlying Gaspé Peninsula, the truth can be slippery, especially down on the fishermen’s wharves.

My Review

We Were The Salt Of The Sea is a crime novel that is slightly different to all the others that I have read before. It is set in the Gaspé peninsula, an area that is heavily dependant on fishing and the crime that Joaquin Morales has to investigate is that of an experienced sailor whose body is found trapped in fishing nets. Unfortunately, Catherine arrives too late to meet the birth mother she has never known. Morales is determined to find out if her death was accidental as some of the community claim or if she was murdered. Both of them also want to know why so many of them hate Marie as much as they do.
The book contains some of the strongest and strangest characters that I have come across. It took me a while to get used to their eccentricity. There aren’t many characters you meet whose most common saying is Christ on a chalice. But as I read more, and realised that all of them had their own way of talking I found it easier to accept and enjoyed the experience.
It is difficult to single out specific characters but Cyrille was the one that touched me most. His frailty, and the friendship he offered to Catherine when all the others were less helpful. The funeral director, ex car salesman, who had me cringing and laughing at the same time. And of course the character of the sea, emptying of fish but still powerful and enticing. Something to fear but also desire.
I loved this novel, it will be one that I will certainly read again in the future.

You can purchase the novel here