Border Songs

by Jim Lynch
3 Stars
Setting: Washington, Canada
304 pages
Published 2009

Ellie's Review
I enjoyed Border Songs.  The story was interesting about the Border Patrol on the Washington/Canadian border.  The character development of Brandon Vanderkool was intriguing and kept my interest as the socially-inept man new to the Border Patrol has the knack for catching things along his stretch of patrol that are out of the ordinary.  I grew up in Idaho, several hours from the Canadian border, and joined in on jokes about how the border wasn’t really secure.  Post 9/11, I was surprised to be stropped and questioned while trying to enter the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.  This novel probes into how much security we should place on that border to keep drugs, illegal aliens, and terrorists out of our country.  Lynch also explores the marijuana growing industry, which I found interesting since I drive past dispensaries every day in Denver.

Book Summary

Set in the previously sleepy hinterlands straddling Washington state and British Columbia, Border Songs is the story of Brandon Vanderkool, six food eight, frequently tongue-tied, severely dyslexic, and romantically inept.  Passionate about bird-watching, Brandon has a hard time mustering enthusiasm for his new job as a Border Patrol agent guarding thirty miles of largely invisible boundary.  But to everyone's surprise, he excels at catching illegals, and as drug runners, politicians, surveillance cameras, and a potential sweetheart flock to this scrap of land, Brandon is suddenly at the center of something much bigger than himself.