Swimming with Horses by Oakland Ross (English) Paperback Book

Description: Swimming with Horses by Oakland Ross A whodunnit on horseback, Swimming with Horses blends equestrian sports, teenage nostalgia, political tensions in new and old South Africa, and a modern take on Canadian identity, all rolled into a taut literary thriller. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description An unlikely friendship between a Canadian teenager and a South African girl sparks a journey to untangle an unsolved murder.Eighteen-year-old Hilary Ansons startling good looks and wanton ways scandalize the denizens of sleepy Kelso County, but young Sam Mitchell is instantly enthralled by his new friend. Over one sun-soaked summer, Hilary vastly improves Sams equestrian skills, while dropping inscrutable details about her past in apartheid-era South Africa. Mysteries mount until Hilary vanishes, leaving at least one unsolved murder in her wake. Many years and two failed marriages later, Sam sets out for South Africa, determined to crack the enigma of Hilary Anson. In doing so, he finds himself confronting a shocking secret of his own. Author Biography Oakland Ross has written two previous novels, a travel memoir, and a short story collection. He worked as a foreign correspondent for several years and received two National Newspaper Awards and a National Magazine Award for fiction. Oakland lives in Toronto. Review The book is essentially a murder mystery, but it is also an exquisite literary achievement. * Foreword Reviews *Set against a bridle-creakingly realistic background of horsemanship, and fueled by the dual mystery of the circumstances surrounding Hilarys departure from South Africa, and then Canada, this is an intriguing coming-of-age novel. * Booklist *Author Oakland Ross provides an intriguing conclusion … leaving both character and reader satisfied. * Quill & Quire *Is it possible for a novel to be both a Bildungsroman about a sensitive Canadian teenager who loves horses and a noirish thriller about apartheid-era South Africa? Somehow, yes. * Globe and Mail * Review Quote Set against a bridle-creakingly realistic background of horsemanship, and fueled by the dual mystery of the circumstances surrounding Hilarys departure from South Africa, and then Canada, this is an intriguing coming-of-age novel. Feature A literary thriller and coming-of-age story: A twice-divorced man reopens a mystery involving a girl he knew as a teenager, who disappeared and left an unsolved murder in her wake Straddles the often-insulated world of small-town Canada and the explosive field of South African politics Explores themes of buried secrets and how notorious international events sometimes point back to skeletons in our own closets Excerpt from Book Prologue They found Quinton Vascos body only a day after he went missing. Still clad in a black business suit, his corpse turned up amid a large field of alfalfa grass, a couple of hundred yards north of Number Four Sideroad in Kelso County. The site was not far from a trail that local teens had used in former days as a sort of lovers lane. By this time, the police had discovered Vascos abandoned BMW nearby. It seemed he had walked from the vehicle into the field, entering by means of the padlocked gates; it was determined he had a key. He then proceeded on foot to the site of his death, evidently accompanied by a second person, his killer. There was no sign of a struggle. Some said it was fitting that Vasco owned the property where he was murdered, although I cant imagine what difference that would make, either to him or to anyone else, unless it was for the view. The view was stunning. Still, it all came to the same thing in the end. The man was dead, shot twice in the side of the head from very close range -- this, according to the police report. The police also said there was something odd about the bullets that killed him. Their calibre -- nine millimetres by eighteen millimetres -- was pretty unusual, albeit not unknown. That summer, the Evanton detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police had received several baffling reports of local livestock being shot while grazing, invariably with bullets of this same unfamiliar configuration. Possibly, the killer had been getting in some target practice. Many people would later insist that Vascos death must have been part of some deadly international plot, rife with intrigue and espionage. He was the inventor, after all, of the GC-45 howitzer, a massive cannon that was eventually sold to the white supremacist government in South Africa. But the actual verdict proved to be far more mundane. Kelso was a quiet region, you see, with little crime and few troublemakers. When acts of malfeasance did take place, suspicion tended to round pretty quickly upon a select group of known delinquents, a short list that included a certain Bruce Gruber. He was a grade eight dropout who worked as an apprentice mechanic at Weintrubs Garage over in Hatton. He had a mean temper and had run afoul of the law more than once. He was not noted for his keen intellect. What was more, Bruce Gruber confessed his guilt almost at once, and he stuck to his tale like a dog. He insisted that he shot Quinton Vasco "because I hated him," which made sense if you know anything about human nature at all. It was said that Gruber acted in a jealous rage, which seemed on the surface to be entirely plausible. All of this and more came out in the news and kept everyone jabbering for weeks. A murder? In Kelso County? Nothing like it had ever happened before. True, rumours would begin to spread toward the end of that summer about an alleged rape, a terrible business said to have involved that nice young Odegaard girl. Leslie was her name. For my part, I happen to have a fair idea of what was done to Leslie on that night, even if few others do. I may even have saved her from suffering worse harm. For almost everyone else, the episode was a matter of hearsay and conjecture -- unproven and easily forgotten. Besides, the Odegaards quickly sold their store in Hatton and set out for parts unknown. People stopped talking about them before very long. I dont believe that anyone was ever punished for the assault on that poor child, or not officially. Still, some higher form of justice may have been at work because, one way or another, Bruce Gruber went to jail. As for the object of Bruces seemingly unrequited passion, she absconded, too. The South African girl, they called her. Colonel Barker drove her to the airport on the day that followed Quinton Vascos death, even before the mans body was found. She left no message or, anyway, none for me. She just marched aboard an airplane and disappeared. Good riddance, everyone said. Her departure merely confirmed what they had believed all along. That girl was trouble. And she was. I know she was. I know that better than anyone. Description for Sales People A literary thriller and coming-of-age story: A twice-divorced man reopens a mystery involving a girl he knew as a teenager, who disappeared and left an unsolved murder in her wake Straddles the often-insulated world of small-town Canada and the explosive field of South African politics Explores themes of buried secrets and how notorious international events sometimes point back to skeletons in our own closets Details ISBN1459743547 Author Oakland Ross Short Title SWIMMING W/HORSES Pages 368 Language English ISBN-10 1459743547 ISBN-13 9781459743540 Format Paperback Year 2019 Imprint Dundurn Group Ltd Place of Publication Toronto Country of Publication Canada Publication Date 2019-04-18 UK Release Date 2019-04-18 Publisher Dundurn Group Ltd Alternative 9781459743557 DEWEY 813.6 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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