A mother's pain. A million dollars. A missing son. Desperate to right old wrongs, a new client hires Russell Quant to locate her son, Matthew, lost to her for twenty years. But can money relieve remorse? Through good old-fashioned detective work, Russell peels away the layers of a carefully concealed life, grown from the seeds of traumatic childhood violence. Tracking Matthew's life from the schoolyard drug culture of a pleasant prairie city's underbelly to the stunning vistas, vibrant townships, and tinderbox safaris of Africa, Russell finds much more than he was looking for. Ever adept at making both friends and foes, Quant runs a gauntlet of uncharted danger as worlds collide. Thrust into the unfamiliar role of bad guy, stymied by seemingly insurmountable distrust and base fear, Russell cuts a blistering swath through covert threats and overt bullets. But as he searches for his Canadian needle in an African haystack, the brutality escalates. Confronting his own role in the cause and effect of scars and anger, retribution and revenge, Russell Quant faces a difficult question: What happens when the prodigal son resists the return? Praise for Anthony Bidulka's previous books "Quant makes for a riveting hero…the kind of friend you want to have — unless you're a killer." — Mystery Scene Magazine (New York) "... an entertaining read, fast and funny and with lots of tender moments." — NOW Magazine (Toronto) "Saskatoon's master of suspense ratchets up the tension ..." — Planet S (Saskatoon) "Bidulka's skill makes the story so vivid that we feel as if we are the friend holding the flashlight while Quant explores the tunnel ahead." — Wayves (Halifax)
I was raised on a farm near the small town of Prudhomme, Saskatchewan, Canada with two siblings, sisters, and many cats and dogs and chickens and cows.
After spending my youth as a tow-headed farm boy who dutifully milked cows, worked the fields and graduated from high school, I moved to Saskatoon to discover my future.
From 1980 to 1983 I attended the University of Saskatchewan (UofS) with the original intent of becoming an Optometrist. During these years I supplemented meagre student loans by taking on a plethora of odd jobs, including one dreadful summer working in a uranium mine in Northern Saskatchewan as a bull cook. According to Websters dictionary a bull cook is a person who performs various chores in a logging camp. Close enough. I did everything from scouring pots to cleaning bunkhouses (yech) to pushing a broom to making cinnamon buns in the middle of the night. I toughed it out, learned a lot about different kinds of people, developed friendships, some lasting to this day, and made some cash. The next summer I took a job as a waiter in a nice, quiet, biker bar.
Having changed my major from optometry to social work to psychology I received a rather varied-discipline Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree (with distinction) in 1983. This gave me the credentials to get yet another job as a waiter. I returned to the UofS the following year and took shockingly few classes which allowed me to become a teacher. My father was a teacher, my brother-in-law was a teacher, I was a smart guy with a BA with no career prospects, it just made sense.
Hated it.
Eventually I ran screaming back to Saskatoon and buried myself in a few years of professional rebellion and introspection - if it is possible to do both at the same time. During this time I worked in retail - shoe stores were my favourite choice (beginning a lifelong love of footwear)and restaurants and bars, oftentimes holding down two or three jobs at a time, getting off work at midnight or 1 am then heading out to the clubs and after hours bars with my friends. Ah, youth.
I met some awesome people, had a lot of fun, learned life lessons, danced a lot, smoked and drank, was broke, had a few marvelously tortuous romances and ultimately, came to know who I was. Now it was time to figure out who I wanted to become.
I returned to the University of Saskatchewan a little older, a little wiser and with the idea that it was time to make some serious money, wear a suit, carry a briefcase and have people call me mister. So of course I decided to become an accountant.
1991 was a big year for me. I had been hired by the international audit and accounting firm of Ernst & Young, I wrote the grueling four-day Uniform Final Exam (UFE) with the hopes of qualifying for the Chartered Accountant (CA) designation, I began my current day relationship with my partner and received two more university degrees: a Bachelor of Education (BEd) and a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) (with distinction).
I was successful in my UFE and received my CA designation in 1993 and continued on the path to become the best darn accountant I could be.
As a CA, I was working many hours, weekends and evenings, which left little time for creative writing. But I always knew or at least dreamed that I would someday become a writer. And so one day I quit my job and did it. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but it has worked out okay for me - with the support of a very wonderful spouse.
One of my favourite sayings is: Life is short, but it can be wide. I try to remember to do whatever I can to make my life wide, wide with people and places and extraordinary experiences. And I am grateful for every second of it so far and every second of it yet to come.
