Shadow Life

Matthew Rice's world falls apart the moment a not guilty verdict is read at the close of a trial over a disturbing child murder. The foundations he has built his life on give way all at once.

Looking for some shelter, if not real safety, Matthew sets out to learn about the mother he never knew. The search takes him through Sydney, Boston and Dublin. Still a stranger in a world that has shifted in ways he cannot fully grasp, he retreats to Quarry Island in Georgian Bay, convinced he can wait out whatever catastrophe is coming with a bottle of twelve-year-old scotch.

The story asks whether Matthew will find what he is searching for on the island, or whether the pull of the outside world will draw him back.