For Wyn Rhys, Director of the Special Police Oversight Agency, justice is not an idea, but a destination. Charged with investigating those who are meant to serve and protect, Rhys is at once a pragmatist and a maverick, intent on changing the world of oversight while fending off challenges from powerful political opponents.

When an artist staging a demonstration dies in a stand-off with police in a crowded shopping mall, videos taken by bystanders begin to circulate online. And Rhys is confronted by an outraged citizenry, an uncooperative police chief, and the desire to protect the vulnerable orphan child of the dead man. At the same time, he finds himself wrestling with his own fixation on a woman from the high-profile case that made his career and a family life that has begun to fray.

Blue Suicide is rooted in the noir tradition but bristles with a new urgency as it interrogates how our technologically advanced society understands concepts of truth, justice and ultimately, compassion.

Jennifer Venner studied art history at the University of Western Ontario and Northwestern University in Illinois, and creative writing at the University of Toronto. She is the author of the play Hearts Made Great (commissioned for the London Symphony Orchestra). Blue Suicide is her first novel. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Jennifer Venner's profile page