Exceptional Circumstances

October 1970 brings a wave of unrest to Canada. Militants of the Front de libération du Québec have seized several foreign diplomats, and the country braces for more attacks. With Montreal on the brink, the prime minister must weigh whether to impose Martial Law there, and he turns for advice to Luc Cadotte, the External Affairs officer regarded as the government's foremost authority on terrorism.

Bartleman frames the novel as Cadotte's own telling of the years that led to this crisis. Luc's journey takes him from the jungles of Colombia to Cuba after its revolution, placing him amid the upheavals that swept Latin America at the time. Along the way he meets people who refuse to distinguish right from wrong, zealots driven by ideology, and self-serving opportunists whose hands are stained with blood.

After several years abroad, Luc comes back to Canada and faces a decision that could end his career and force him to examine how far his principles will bend.