This is not your conventional whodunit type of mystery but I thought it was very well done indeed. It perhaps was more interesting to me because it is set in Winnipeg in the Norwood area which is an area I know quite well. Alison obviously knows it inside and out and describes the houses, people and businesses to a T.

Cherry Ring grew up in a house on Monck Avenue with her mother, Nora, father, Murray, and brother, Pete. Cherry was about 3 years old when Pete was born. Pete was a fussy baby and Cherry grew tired of hearing him scream nonstop. One day when she was on the porch playing and Pete was there, crying as usual, she went over and bit him on the cheek. Hence the name of the book. Pete had to have a skin graft taken from his buttock and so Cherry, with the cruelty that only a child can use, called him Assface. No-one outside the family knew how Pete sustained the injury but the nickname stuck. Pete repaid Cherry by ignoring her for the entire time they lived in the same house. He didn't talk to her, he didn't play with her and, in fact, he seemed to just not see her. When they were both still young their father died and Cherry was bereft. Her mother provided food and clothing but no emotional support. When Dougwell Jones, her mother's long time lover, was finally free to marry Nora he suggested they move to Vancouver for a fresh start. By this time Cherry was in University and didn't want to leave Winnipeg. She begged her mother not to sell the house and let her live in it. Thus Nora, Pete and Dougwell moved to Vancouver and Cherry never saw them again. In 1973 Nora phoned to tell Cherry that Pete had committed suicide. Years later, after Nora had died herself, three things happened that threw Cherry's life into disarray. Need to know what they were? Read the book, I'm not going to spoil the plot for you. ( )