Citizens of Light
Ashley Raskovsky
, Noelle Walsh
, Marissa Yip-Young
, Amanda Schempp
, Susan Hroncek
, PATRICIA SOPEL
, Jude Castillo
, Linda Leitch
, Penny Gilman
, Deana Bueley
, Margo Beredjiklian
, Mathew Webb
, Sandra Furlotte
, Joshua Lewis
, Andrea Pole
, Marilyn Stanley
, Shannon Holmes
, Barry Kazimer
, Ed Gilman
, Paula Adam
, LJ Law
, Sarah Schwartz
, Emily Bickell
, Joe Mitchell
, Claire Gear
, Cassandra Schiemann
, Tyler Webb
, Andy Holmes
, Natasa Ilic
, Julie Kaniak
, Reilly Robson
, Chantal Comeau
, Mary-Esther Lee
, Lauren Seal
, Leeann Minogue
, Shayla Bradley
, Sarah Van Dyk
, Dani Kat
, Carrie Morris
, Mary Therrien
, Courtney White
, Agnes Marshall
, Trish Bowering
, Andrea Gillespie
, Deb Philippon
, Jennifer Morse
, Jilanna Eagles
, Brenda Vaccarello
, Gabrielle Veilleux
, Tracy Fox
, Hoda Montazeri
, Kenzie Woitowicz
, Patricia Johnson
, Vicki Bedford
, Ellen Clarke
, Emma Way
, Laurie Burns
, Dawn Macdonald
, Tanya Boudreau
, Lisa Ostrowski
, Sharon Bird
, Crystal Inwood
, Gabrielle Wolfe
, Remi Gunn
, Shawna Moodie
, P. Thompson
, Ken Gilmour
, Heather Rose
, Paula Ritchie
, Cynthia Heinrichs
, Charles Leblanc
, Heather Belliveau
, Christine Lion
, S. A. M. McCue
, Jane Graham
, Rachel Lutz
, Mary Danieli
, joy mills
, Huguette Lemieux
, Diana Richardson
, Susan Fitzgerald
, Derek Davidson
, Lynn Hallson
, Benita Hartwell
, Debbie Rodgers
, Maria Mclean
, Denise Duvall
, Rosa Cross
, Janet Meisner
, Rodney Cross
, Donald Forsythe
, Catherine Westerberg
, Patricia McKeown
, Kate Kostandoff
, Margaret McKay
, Maureen Brownlee
, Deborah Kennedy
, Bruce Retallack
, Susan Baues
, Sandra Dufoe
, jane luce
, Pam Keetch
, Kim Cappellina
, Robin Leighton
, diana kirkwood
, Lynn Bechtel
, Alice Meems
, Janice Cournoyer
, Lisa Mallia
, Stacy Stafford
, Karen Kendrick
, Melissa Kohlman
, Karen Nordrum
, Debra Fisher
, Pamela Humphrey
, Karen Bass
, E. Ainslie
, Debbie Youngman
, Shannon Lee
, Melissa Poremba
, Adrienne Stevenson
, Vivian Thorgeirson
, Elaine Baptie
editor@49thShelf.com
Colleen Weagle works in a call centre and lives in a bungalow with her mother in a quiet Toronto suburb. In her spare time she writes spec scripts for a CBC riding-school drama (her mother’s favourite) and plays an online game set in a resort populated by reindeer. It’s a typical life. Except three months ago Colleen’s husband Leonard—who led a similarly monotonous life—was found in a bog in the middle of the night, a two hours’ drive from home. Dead.
With a flatly optimistic belief in the power of routine, Colleen has been soldiering on, trying not to think too hard about all the unknowns surrounding the death. But when a local news photo twigs Colleen’s memory of a mystery attendee at Leonard’s funeral she snaps into action.
In the maddening company of her ornery co-worker Patti, she heads to Niagara Falls on a quest to find the truth behind the death. Amid the slot machines and grubby hotels, the pair stumble into the darker underworld of a faded tourist trap. What they find will lead straight to an episode from Colleen’s adolescence she thought she’d put firmly behind her.
Bleakly madcap, with deadpan dialogue, Shelstad’s debut novel is a noir anti-thriller reminiscent of Twin Peaks and the work of Ottessa Moshfegh and early Kate Atkinson. He captures call-centre life, ramshackle tourist attractions, and suburbia with wit and sharp realism, and reveals the undercurrents of melancholy and the truly bizarre that can run beneath even the most seemingly mild-mannered lives.
