In 1959, western Canada was only half a century removed from the old west already being commemorated in books and in the movies and television series. Cowboys and oilmen dominated the popular imagination in a rural economy of small towns surrounded by small family farms. The culture was in gradual transition, with an eye to the future but with one foot planted firmly in the previous century. The new mythology of the old west fueled the imagination of every child bored by an uneventful hot and dry Alberta summer. It's 1959. Three 12 year old boys. Two 12 year old girls. Summer is boring in a small Alberta town. A mysterious stranger arrives in a big black car. A hired gun, the kids think, a hit man. Life has become more interesting. The kids follow the stranger. A boy is murdered. A prominent shopkeeper is murdered. The kids tell Tom, the town Mountie, their suspicions. Tom seems not to believe them. There are rumours of major fraud at the local coop store. The kids follow the stranger and the coop manager. And then...
About the Author: Bob MacKenzie has published a dozen books of poetry and prose-fiction and his work has been featured in numerous anthologies. His arts reviews and commentary have been published in many newspapers, on CBC radio, in academic journals, and online. His writing has also been published as prestigious numbered limited-edition hand-made letterpress art-books by The Brandstead Press and Thee Hellbox Press. Bob's novels Ghost Shadow: Unfinished Sins and Another Eternity and his poetry collection On Edge have all been winners of international awards and he has received an Ontario Arts Council grant for literature and a Canada Council grant to support his performance. Bob's poetry has appeared in hundreds of magazines, journals, and anthologies internationally. Many of his 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. Both on his own and with the performance ensemble Poem de Terre, Bob has performed much of his poetry live with original music. Six albums of Bob's spoken performances with Poem de Terre have been released.