Misery Bay

Misery Bay” is more than just a fitting name for this outwardly innocent fishing village.

Misery Bay is a picturesque fishing village on the Eastern shore of Nova Scotia, a seemingly idyllic location. But the islands and hidden coves hide something more sinister. Illegal immigrants and drugs are being smuggled in for the escort services in Halifax. Special Constable Garrett Barkhouse has spent twenty years fighting these twin scourges, but now he’s burned out and planning to retire. However, his boss, Deputy Commissioner Alton Tuttle, has other plans. He entices Garrett to return to his old home town and establish a police presence on the Eastern shore. What he expects will be light dutyGarrett quickly discoversis anything but. An unexpected murder of four young girls leads him into a thick web of interconnecting drug pushers, illegal immigrants, and prostitution.

While he tries to get a handle on events, Garrett is sucked back into many of the relationships from his childhood. The cast of colorful characters includes Roland Cribby, a scallop fisherman and all around unpleasant character, old man Publicover who has just married his fifth wife, beautiful reporter Kitty Wells, and Garrett’s cousin, a giant of a man who is an enforcer for the Longshoremen on the waterfront in Halifax.

An offshore oil rig, conveniently outside Canadian territorial waters, becomes the focus of the investigation. Global Resources CEO Anthony DeMaio has developed a nice sideline to the oil business. When Kitty Wellsthe beautiful reportertries to investigate, she is swept up by the machinations and kidnapped into sex slavery. As a series of hurricanes push in from the North Atlantic, Garrett and Lonnie find themselves fighting not only drug lords and CEOs but also the elements that threaten to topple the oil rig and kill everyone on board.

Chris Angus is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction and is also a newspaper columnist. He has published more than four hundred essays, articles, book introductions, columns, and reviews in a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Albany Times-Union, Adirondack Life,American Forests, Wordsworth American Classics, Adirondack Explorer, and many more. His most recent works includeThe London Underground and The Gods of Laki. Angus lives in Canton, New York.