Audrey and Winnifred, 2 favourite characters

One of the funniest scenes I’ve read in years happens at the beginning of Come thou tortoise by Jessica Grant. Our heroine Audrey is a well meaning, mentally challenged young woman flying back to St. John’s, Newfoundland to see her injured father. Audrey is suspicious of a passenger who is reading a Shirley Maclaine book. Then she notices that he has a gun. Audrey disarms the man and locks herself in the bathroom. It is the Air Marshall’s bad luck to run into such a formidable opponent!


This novel reminds me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. An offbeat narrator with a persistent nature and unique way of looking at the world solves a mystery. The second intriguing voice in this book is Winnifred, the tortoise from the title. Winnifred is Audrey’s pet, and fills the reader in on all the important points that Audrey neglects to mention. We recommend this book to people who like zany families like the ones you find in Miriam Toew’s novels.