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Westminster Bookmark is pleased to present the Fredericton launch of New Brunswick author Luke Francis Beirne's latest thriller, Saints Rest, published by Baraka Books.The event takes place at the beautiful Gallery 78 (796 Queen St.) on Saturday, March 29th, at 6pm. Free to attend. Books will be available for purchase.
SAINTS REST is a neo-noir novella set in a gritty and unforgiving Saint John, a town where few people are prepared for its secrets, least of all Frank Cain.
Malory Fleet's son was killed by bikers and now she's worried about his missing girlfriend, Amanda. But that case was closed shut by the police a year ago and Frank Cain, the private investigator she's hired, is reluctant to take it on. On the sometimes seedy streets of uptown Saint John, no one wants to talk, even fewer have anything to say, and the police have cast a blanket of fog over everything. As Frank searches fruitlessly for clues, he learns more about Malory than about Amanda, and begins to grow wary. Throughout, Detective Stuart Boucher is following Frank and making little effort to hide it, leading Cain to conclude that the officer may have more to do with the case than he's letting on. For Frank Cain, as unmoored as a lost ship in the harbour, in unravelling this case he risks unravelling himself.
LUKE FRANCIS BEIRNE was born in Donegal, Ireland, and lives on the Wolastoqey land of Saint John, New Brunswick. His first novel, Foxhunt, was a finalist for the 2022 Foreword INDIES award and selected as one of The Miramichi Reader's Very Best novels of 2022. His second novel, Blacklion, was selected by CBC as one of the novels to read in 2023 and shortlisted by the Writer's Federation of New Brunswick for the 2023 Best Novel Award. His stories, essays and reviews have appeared in Counterpunch, Hamilton Arts & Letters,NB Media Co-op, and CrimeReads. Beirne's work has been stylistically compared to Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Frederick Forsyth, and John le Carré. Saints Rest is his third novel.
"Saints Rest by Luke Francis Beirne is set in a dreary Saint John, New Brunswick and centers around Frank Cain, a private investigator. Think Dashiel Hammett's Sam Spade or the Continental Op, and you're on the right track for a great read. (. . .) Snappy dialogue and realistic characters make Saints Rest such an enjoyable book."
- James Fisher, The Seaboard Review
"The writing in Saints Rest, a neo-noir set in Saint John, is some of the very best prose about this port city ever written. (. . .) Beirne's skill is taking the hard boiled and pulpy and making it literary. His writing evokes the greats, while delivering the page turning thrills of a bestseller. Saints Rest is utterly essential and at this early stage already a contender for one of the best of the year."
- James Mullinger, Co-founder and editor of [EDIT] Magazine
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Gallery 78, 796 Queen St.,Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
