The Lonely, Silvery Rain

This gripping story centres around a 2018 ruling by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, awarding ten billion dollars to twenty-one First Nations along the northeast shore of Lake Huron in Ontario.

The settlement is compensation for unpaid annuities to those First Nations, payments that are mandatory under the still-valid, 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaty. Over the years, billions of dollars in profits were extracted from lands belonging to those First Nations for mining, timber, and fishing enterprises, but the obligatory, compensatory annuities were adjusted only once, in 1875, thus depriving the First Nations people of revenues to which they were entitled.

Although this story is fictional, as is the Odishkwaagamii First Nation, the ramifications of the settlement quickly affect the surrounding community of Port Huntington, a small resort town on Georgian Bay. In short order, vandalism, extortion, violence, and murder burst upon the scene, and a number of personal grievances among various players boil to the surface.

Maggie Keiller and Derek Sloan, longtime friends of the Odishkwaagamii, become inextricably involved in these interwoven concerns. It is only through their personal integrity and courage that they are able to navigate through the chaos. Determined as always to defend the Port Huntington community, and themselves, they work closely with police to ensure justice will prevail.

This riveting tale, the thirteenth in the Maggie Keiller/Derek Sloan crime series, will seize readers’ interest from the get-go, and hold it right to the end.