Susan Mayse

Susan Mayse is a fourth generation Vancouver Islander who grew up on stories of the mining towns of Cumberland, Bevan, Nanaimo, and Wellington. She has written for many national and international publications including The Daily Mail, The Toronto Star, and The Malahat Review. She is also the author of a prize-winning novel, Merlin’s Web and Ginger: The Life and Death of Albert Goodwin, a BC Bestseller and winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for True Crime and the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. She is the daughter of the late journalist and author Arthur Mayse.

Freelance writers, unlike detectives, aren’t usually paid to live dangerous lives, but Sid Rafferty — the protagonist of Matt Hughes’ novel Old Growth — asks too many wrong questions of the wrong people and nearly gets himself laid lower than a second-growth fir. The sequel to Downshift is a fine, fast-forward mystery played out in a failed one-industry BC town, and as always, Matt lays on his keen observation of people and places. You’ll find something for everyone in this wry, clever book: history, developers, eco-warrriors, loggers, dope growers, me (at least my film option) and Mars water bombers. Reading Old Growth is a grand way to spend an evening or weekend grasping a Lucky Lager, or perhaps more appropriately, a BC Bud. Grab a copy and enjoy.

Old Growth is now available in print and eBook from Five Rivers and online booksellers worldwide.