cover image The Devil’s Dust: 
A Charlie McKelvey Mystery

The Devil’s Dust: A Charlie McKelvey Mystery

C.B. Forrest. Dundurn (www.dundurn.com), $17.99 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-4597-0192-2

Unusual conviction revitalizes familiar material in Arthur Ellis Award–finalist Forrest’s exceptional third Charlie McKelvey novel (after 2010’s Slow Recoil). Having lost his family and his job as a Toronto police detective and now bearing a diagnosis of prostate cancer, McKelvey flees to his hometown, Ste. Bernadette, to re-examine his past and take stock of his present condition. Like him, the little mining town has an uncertain future, but its failing health is complicated by the introduction of crystal methamphetamine among disaffected teens, leading to pointless, heartbreaking violence and death. As an earnest young policeman begs for McKelvey’s assistance, the older man begins facing his own addictions and realizes how much his sad experience still can help others. What could have been a mawkish tale of redemption is told with honest, restrained but eloquent prose that gives tantalizing glimpses into the sympathetic but sometimes deeply flawed characters. The result is quietly but deeply memorable. (June)