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The Killing Jars

by Dan Neil

192 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1252; ISBN 1-4120-9497-6; US$17.38, C$19.99, EUR14.28, £10.00

John Trickett's world is shrinking, out on the short-grass prairie undulating on and on to the horizons. He has never been east of Regina or west of Medicine Hat. Out there is what he fears and what he does not know...

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

John Trickett is a rancher in southern Saskatchewan suffering from guilt since his brother Luke vanished from the world twenty-five years ago. Luke was diagnosed with Schizophrenia while studying Entomology at the University of British Columbia and was institutionalized by his family who could not bear the shame of another illness. Institutions closed and Luke fell through the cracks.

When John's father calls him to his house in Maple Creek, he finds his frail mother clutching a newspaper article on the lost souls living in the ravines of Toronto. There is a photograph. She thinks it's Luke and pleads John to bring him home. He makes a promise to her and to himself, to reconcile a life lost. But John's wife Nora implores him not to go. She has a dire fear of Luke and what his return may bring to Windrush.

John defies Nora and leaves on a journey to Toronto's netherworld in the ravines of Toronto where he meets Steven, a contemptible panhandler. But he knows how to find Luke. John befriends him and soon learns that he is more than he seems, an intelligent young man hiding from unimaginable horrors. Finally Steven leads John to Luke. Together at long last, Luke is skittish, wild, and does not recognize John. In that moment enemies of Steven interrupt the reunion. There is a shooting and Luke is wounded.

Luke recovers and in the fall John brings him home to Windrush. Nora tries to accept him but cannot see past her fear. Still John is determined to make things right at all costs, to give Luke back the life taken from him. But all is not well with Luke. He is lost again. And John comes to terms with his past. What his family did and did not do for Luke could never be truly forgiven, but at last acknowledged and accepted to allow space for new beginnings.

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About the Author

Dan Neil is the author of nine novels. The Killing Jars is his debut novel. He won First Prize in Poetry at the Surrey International Writer's Conference writing contest three times and had a short story published in the Federation of BC Writers Anthology edited by Susan Musgrave. Dan has studied Creative Writing at UBC. His writing is rich with the details of landscape and soul. He lives in Langley, B.C.

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Excerpts

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