Sunsetter

Poet LeBlanc (Little Wild) makes his fiction debut with a taut thriller set over three days in the Canadian prairie town of Perron, which has been in decline since the end of the oil boom. On the opening afternoon of the Sunsetter rodeo, Dallan Dermott and his best buddy, Brooks, check out a place to buy drugs in the midway, watch the first chuck wagon races of the weekend, and drink beer. After their third beer, behind the rodeo bleachers, Dallan is feeling a buzz, then he notices that Brooks has collapsed on the grass and dies of an overdose—from drugs sold to him by Pretty Nick, a carnie. Dallan sets out to take revenge on Nick. Enter Hannah Fields, who’s in love with Nick, and Deputy Arnason, whom Hannah and Dallan soon discover is also selling drugs. Arnason learns that Hannah and Dallan know he’s a drug pusher, and his boss, Sheriff Robert Durham, orders him to eliminate Dallan. Violence ensues, and Arnason puts pressure on Hannah to go along with his and Durham’s version of the truth about the murder. The action moves slowly at first, but builds to an explosive conclusion. LeBlanc’s doomed young people put a human face on the horrendous impact of the drug crisis. Agent: Akin Akinwumi, Willenfield Literary (Canada). (Apr.)