by Tom Henighan (Author)
Short-listed for the 2011 Shamus Awards
Deadly nightshade - the poison plant par excellence - and in historic Quebec City at an important scientific conference concerning the genetic manipulation of trees it means murder!
Police, RCMP, and a mysterious FBI agent from Washington converge on the scene. But the sharpest eye belongs to Sam Montcalm, a despised "bedroom snooper" from Ottawa whose primary concern is to clear a First Nations activist of the crime. Sam is middle-aged, tough, and sophisticated, yet he's also a lone wolf who feels displaced nearly everywhere, and his relations with his colleagues, the police - and with women - are always complicated. "You're a psychic wound without a health card," a friend comments
The story moves to its surprising climax as Montcalm follows the trail of murder back to Canada's capital and into the Gatineau Hills, his deep sense of cynicism about human nature confirmed as he closes in on the killer and struggles to come to terms with himself.
Author Biography
Tom Henighan is an Ottawa writer and editor. His fiction includes The Well of Time, shortlisted for the Seal Books First Novel Award; Mercury Man, shortlisted for the Red Maple Award; Viking Quest and Viking Terror, the latter shortlisted for the City of Ottawa Fiction Prize, and Doom Lake Holiday, a teen mystery set in Ontario's Rideau Lakes.