Songs of Love on a December Night

From one of Canada’s most celebrated and controversial novelists comes a tale of dark aspirations, betrayal and murder.

When Jamie Musselman’s father is found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, it doesn’t take long for rumours and suspicions about Jamie to swirl through Miramachi. Why was Jamie also shot that night? Why was money discovered under his pillow? Was it true, as some of the boys at his school claimed, that Jamie possessed a cruel nature and had even once been spotted killing robins?

As the years bend on, Jamie continues to maintain his innocence, but few others, aside from his fiancée, Gertie, believe him. Including the police, who finally arrest him. Including the judge, who convicts Jamie of murder.

But nothing is ever as it seems in Miramachi, a place where vanity, resentment and crimes of opportunity are forever brewing, and unlikely alliances are continually being formed. In the weeks before the murder, a self-proclaimed revolutionary had returned to Miramachi after being expelled from university; a career criminal falsely claiming Indigenous heritage had been released from jail; and a hapless bully of a father--Gertie’s father--had discovered there was money in the Musselmans’ home, kept in the very study where Jamie’s father was found dead. Is there more to the story than the townsfolk believe?

Richly conceived and fearless in its examination of morality and justice, prejudice and corruption, Songs of Love on a December Night is an epic exploration of the evil we are capable of and of the redemption we can aspire to.

DAVID ADAMS RICHARDS is one of Canada’s pre-eminent writers. His recent novels include Darkness, Mary Cyr and Principles to Live By, as well as Crimes Against My Brother and Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul, both of which were longlisted for the Giller Prize. Among his other novels, The Lost Highway was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Giller Prize; The Friends of Meager Fortune won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book; Mercy Among the Children won the Giller Prize. In 2017, David Adams Richards was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.