Steve Lansing, a down and out freelance journalist in Windsor, a Canadian border city across the river from Detroit, Michigan, is gradually but inexorably drawn to a story of international crime and conspiracy with political implications, yet is unable to penetrate the web of deceit protecting whoever is behind it all. Finding himself ever deeper in a world that seems controlled by fantasy, dreams, and visions, it's not that Steve is stubborn, but that it seems he can find no way out. In time, Steve hooks up with the widow of a murdered cabbie and an honest cop on the city force, but can the three of them find their way out of this dark hole into which they've fallen?
About the Author: Canadian novelist, poet, performer, and arts reviewer Bob MacKenzie has been widely published across North America and as far away as Australia in publications that include The Dalhousie Review, University of Windsor Review, Ball State University Forum and many more and been arts reviewer and commentator on regional and national CBC radio in Canada. Eleven books of Bob's poetry and prose have been published, including four e-books, and his work has been featured in numerous anthologies. Bob's poems have been reproduced by visual artists and sculptors and a public art gallery has devoted an entire visual arts exhibition to his poetry. He is possibly the only poet to have versions of his poetry owned by the Canada Council's National Art Bank. With the performance ensemble Poem de Terre, he has performed much of his poetry live and recorded with original music. the group has released six albums. Throughout his career, Bob has also presented performances by other artists, beginning with two major readings that featured a young George Bowering, later to become Poet Laureate of Canada. Drawing upon a tradition of art that originates before historic memory, Bob considers all arts to be part of a greater whole, as story - originally used in ritual and religion and to express the news and morés of culture. This unified tradition of the arts is the basis for Bob's multi-media approach, integrating his written and spoken words with various other artistic media. For almost five decades, he has expressed his art in a melding of formats that includes printed, spoken, and sung words; live and recorded performance; and multi-media visual art involving photography, painting, print making, and collage. Bob has received a number of awards for his poetry, prose, and scripts including a prestigious Ontario Arts Council Grant. Besides A Gathering of Shadows, Bob's most recent publications from Dark Matter Press are "Ghost Shadow: Unfinished Sins" and "To Whom It May Concern."