My Books

HANGMAN: The true story of Canada’s first official executioner, October, 2022, Tidewater Press

Is delivering a swift death really a higher calling? Or is it just government-sanctioned murder?

John Radclive hates being called Hangman. He is no murderous thug; he is a highly trained executioner who relies on science to bring God’s mercy to condemned criminals. As Canada’s first official executioner, he revels in the salary, status and perks that come with the job. In his off hours, he enjoys masquerading as Thomas Ratley, steward at Toronto’s prestigious Sunnyside Rowing Club where he secretly sneers at the hypocrisy of the Canadian elite. 

But dispensing mercy presumes that the condemned are guilty. The more convicted felons he meets, the more Radclive begins to question the Canadian justice system and his role within it—perhaps he is a hangman after all. 

The Perfect Cut

The Darkness Between the Stars (Fall 2010 Release)
The Freedom of Jenny
How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth (essay in anthology)
Romantic Ghost Stories
Adrift
Dead Reckoning

Saying Goodbye to London, 2018

The story has moments of sweet romance along with gritty realism, and teens will be drawn into what feels like a true story…. Though teen pregnancy is declining throughout the industrialized world, it is still a challenging reality. Saying Goodbye to London provides an unvarnished look at that reality through the eyes of two believable young adults. (CM: Canadian Review of Materials)

Buy my books on Indigo or Amazon

 

The Perfect Cut

The freedom of Jenny

Teen Fiction:

The Darkness Between the Stars, BENJAMIN brown books, 2010

While Kate and her brother are very close to each other, there is one large difference between them – a chasm that widens over time – and threatens to destroy both of them. Will Kate be able to save her brother from himself or will his increasingly dark outlook on life take him to a place where nobody will ever be able to reach him?

The Perfect Cut, Raincoast Publishing 2008

What do you do when you find yourself not caring about anything? How do you handle being so detached from your life that you choose feeling pain over feeling absolutely nothing at all?
After the death of his tough, guitar-playing, beloved sister, Michelle, Bryan finds it increasingly difficult to feel anything. He doesn’t care about his parents. He doesn’t care about his friends. Or school. Or anything. The only time he comes alive these days is during the few seconds it takes for the razor to cut his skin. He hasn’t cut deep enough to cause any real damage. Not yet.

Adrift, Raincoast Publishing, 2002

At 14, David Garrett lives in an unhappy house. His mother is acting strangely, retreating to bed and pleading for time alone. His father buries himself in his work. When his mother is checked into an institution for clinical depression, David and his 10-year-old sister Laura are shipped from Toronto to their Aunt Jenn’s home in Desolation Sound, B.C. Soon it looks like their situation might be permanent. The brother-sister team steal a dinghy and head for the deserted caves on Dragon Island, intent on calling their father’s bluff. A stormy sea and an accident on the cliffs turn defiance into desperation — and David’s “crazy family” is the only hope for rescue.

Historical Fiction:

The Freedom of Jenny, Raincoast Publishing 2005

After Jenny and her family earn their freedom, the idealistic former slaves journey from Missouri to California. Their initially warm reception quickly cools, so they participate in a mass emigration of free blacks to a wild British Columbia island, where Jenny – only 14 – helps her tragically diminished family forge a homestead.

Dead Reckoning, Raincoast Publishing, 2000

When 14-year-old James boards the steamship Valencia in San Francisco’s harbour in 1906 he knows his nightmares are omens of an ill-fated passage. Apprehensively, he explores the ship with Alex, a fellow traveller who introduces him to oblivious passengers and crew. When a violent storm and thick fog reduce the navigators to dead reckoning, James braces himself for the worst. The vessel runs aground in the Juan de Fuca Strait, 50 metres from shore, in seas too rocky for rescue. While victims cling to the masts in the gale, the boys board the last lifeboat … Only 20 people survive and over 200 passengers and crew are killed–a sea disaster as horrible as the sinking of the Titanic–as the Valencia sinks to its watery grave off what is now the West Coast Trail

Essays and Excerpts:

How to Achieve Heaven on Earth, “Ending Poverty One Loan at a Time,” Pelican Publishing, 2010,

This collection of inspirational essays from 101 of the world’s leading thinkers, statesmen, artists, and theologians addresses the question of how to make the world a better place. Contributors include Al Gore, David Brooks, Tony Blair, Thomas L. Friedman, George Bush, Nicholas D. Kristoff, Leonard Pitts Jr., James K. Glassman, Ted Turner, and many more.

Literacy in Action: On the Move, Excerpt; Freedom of Jenny, Pearson Education Canada, Grade 8 English Program, 2009

Nominations/Awards:

OLA, White Pine Award Nominee (2010)
Canadian Children’s Book Centre – Best Books for Teens (2009)
Stellar Book Award (2008)
Canadian Library Association, Book of the Year (2002)
Chocolate Lilly (British Columbia, 2003)
CanWest Global’s Raise-a-Reader Club (2003)
Reader’s Choice Award (2002)
Red Cedar (British Columbia, 2003-2004)
Diamond Willow (Saskatchewan, 2002)