Francesca Bernard ran away from the family vineyard because she was determined to live a different life--one without the grapes and her secrets. But when Enrico, the foreman, calls her home because her father's dementia is making it impossible for him to manage the vineyard, she and her son return and discover the vineyard and her father in dire need. She assumes her father's role and deals with the complexities of running the vineyard, his aging, and Enrico's advances. The grapes are struggling. Money is tight. Her father is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Her teenage son experiments with drugs,...

2016 Manitoba Book Awards' Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction -- Winner

Secrets are lurking behind the proper exteriors of Winnipeg's turn-of-the-century houses.

In June 1899, the Reverend Charles Lauchlan's industrious life as a young Presbyterian minister is knocked off the rails when he learns that his former university roommate has been arrested on murder charges.

The chief of police says it's an open-and-shut case, but Sergeant Setter -- labelled as a misfit by his fellow officers -- disagrees. Lauchlan and Setter become uneasy allies in...