Winner, Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University’s First Book Competition

Nondescript Rambunctious is a genre-busting thriller with a beating, human heart. More than a simple story of a killer and his victims, the novel takes the reader into the life of a family, the days of a community, and the very real possibility that evil is everywhere—maybe even inside us. Woven through this dark tapestry are the glittering threads of humanity, humour, and in the form of one young woman, the promise of redemption.

Like a sinister dream, Nondescript Rambunctious pulls you in and doesn’t let go. There is no easy way out.

Praise for Nondescript Rambunctious:

“Jackie Bateman’s debut novel is very impressive. The writing is taut, controlled, and relentless. Nondescript Rambunctious is a dark, murderous thriller, a winner with a variety of narrators, surprising turns and shifts, and some hard, hard corners.” (Mark Anthony Jarman, author of My White Planet and 19 Knives)

“… Nondescript Rambunctious, for which Jackie Bateman won the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University’s First Book Competition in the fiction category, is a thriller that succeeds by nodding politely to the formula, then turning it on its head. The novel has four narrators, but Bateman weaves their voices together effortlessly, and the build-up retains all the suspense and intensity one expects from a crime thriller. … Bateman hasn’t imagined a world of dogged cops, rumpled detectives, or amateur sleuths. Nondescript Rambunctious is about the heartbreaking consequences of human depravity, not tying up loose ends or piecing together clues. It wouldn’t be wrong to label this novel a thriller, but it also confounds the expectations of that label, to great effect.” (Quill & Quire)

“Vancouver’s Jackie Bateman draws on her Scottish roots for a bewitching first novel that transforms from gentle domestic comedy into gripping suspense. … it’s a real page-turner, and Bateman takes it to a surprising and satisfying conclusion.” (Prairie Fire)