An Amazon top 100 book of 2009!

A rollicking, comic and ultimately haunting tale of fist-fighting, faith and fine madness

In the 1850s, in the slums of the great city of London, Daniel O’Thunder, a troubled but charismatic former prize-fighter turned evangelist, runs a safe house for those in need of food, shelter, prayer and good counsel. But in London’s dark streets, an ancient evil is wreaking havoc, throwing into peril the lives of its most vulnerable souls. O’Thunder, getting on in years but still wielding a right fist dubbed “The Hammer of Heaven”, returns to the ring to start training for his greatest fight yet – with the Devil himself.

Surrounding O’Thunder is a strange collection of people who love him: Jack, a spectacularly failed cleric and worse actor who is the compiler of O’Thunder’s story; J.T.”Jaunty” Rennert, one-time recruiting sergeant, shady small-time operator and O’Thunder’s self-styled best friend; and Nell, the gold-hearted, foul-mouthed young prostitute who ultimately carries her love for O’Thunder into the wilds of the Cariboo gold-rush in faraway British Columbia, where the novel reaches its extraordinary apotheosis.

Daniel O’Thunder is a novel of amazing wealth of character and variety of voice. Comedy bumps up against cruelty, tragedy against farce, inhumanity against love—a dazzling debut that is hilarious, harrowing, and deeply moving.

Ian Weir is a playwright, screenwriter, TV showrunner, and the author of two previously published novels. Daniel O'Thunder was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer'’ Prize for Best First Book, as well as the Canadian Authors Association Award for fiction, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the amazon.ca First Novel Award. Will Starling was longlisted for the International DUBLIN Literary Award and shortlisted for the Sunburst Award. Among his extensive television credits are his work as creator and showrunner of Arctic Air and as writer and executive producer of the acclaimed gangland miniseries, Dragon Boys.He has won two Geminis, four Leos, a Jessie, and a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award.

Born in North Carolina, Ian Weir grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia. He now lives near Vancouver.

Ian Weir's profile page

• Short-listed, Amazon.ca First Novel Award
• Short-listed, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
• Short-listed, Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book Award
• Short-listed, Canadian Authors Association's Award for Fiction

"If one unreliable narrator is enough to skew a book toward the fantastical, imagine the twists generated by four! In his first novel, veteran screenwriter Ian Weir calls on a quartet of witnesses to deliver the story of godly pug Daniel O'Thunder, proud son of Cork turned evangelical sermonizer, and it's a sign of his sure command that all are engaging, even when spinning bald-faced lies or subtle prevarications...This is wonderful stuff."

Georgia Straight

"Daniel O'Thunder smacks of London life a century and a half ago: drunken costermongers, beggars and whores, doing the Lordís work amongst the dregs of the city, public hangings, Old Bailey, people with names like Nag and Fish...Weir's debut novel reads much like a play, moving from act to act, leaving the reader patiently waiting to get back to the next hair-raising episode."

Sun Times

"Ambitious in scope and structure, [Daniel O'Thunder] speaks in pitch-perfect Victorian diction through a wide range of characters to relate the ultimate-stakes quarrel between the pugilist preacher Daniel O'Thunder and his ultimate adversary: The Devil Himself."

Vancouver Magazine

"Daniel O'Thunder, a pugilist-evangelist in the slums of Victorian England, is hell-bent on defeating the devil in the boxing ring. The ancient battle between evil and good plays out in a debut novel both outrageously funny and bizarrely creepy."

 

Library Journal

"A frightening, funny, moving, page-turning romp. "

Steven Galloway, author of "The Cellist of Sarajevo"

"Laced with blood thunder, sex, murder, rape, mayhem and miracles, Ian Wier's first novel is about good versus evil...from the outset, even if we haven't read the author's biography we know we are in skilled hands."

BC Bookworld

"'Dickensian' is an adjective too often misused in describing books set in Victorian England. It is, however, the perfect word for this superb novel, nominated for the Commonwealth Prize. Weir, an award-winning screenwriter and playwright, takes us right to the centre of London in 1815 with as brilliantly constructed a band of reprobates as Dickens ever saw. Marvellous from the first paragraph."

Globe & Mail

"Drenched in filthy Thames waters and coiffed in muttonchops, Weir’s outlandish tale is a top-shelf page-turner, with commentary on the fickle role of the writer thrown into the whole glorious, fractured mess."

Publishers Weekly

"A pugilist-turned-preacher returns to the boxing ring with the ultimate goal of going toe-to-toe with the devilówhat more could you want? Weir's unique retelling of the Gospels, set in mid-19th-century London, is Charles Dickens meets Thom Jones...A knockout debut."

National Post

"Weir's plot steps smartly, and the language crackles with the immediacy of shifting first-person voices...There are murders, rapes, hangings, prizefights, a city-wide riot, and lots of thrilling escapes...By the time the novel reaches its dramatic conclusion...the story has landed in a place somewhere between dementia and the supernatural. All of which makes for an historical novel that is a lot more fun and thrilling than what we have come to expect."

Quill & Quire

"No tea parties or balls here; it is all about the blurred balance between the wretched and the righteous, set in dank boarding rooms, public drinking houses, and the cells of Newgate Prison. The battle between the great Hammer of Heaven and the evil stalking him climaxes in a fight that will leave readers breathless. VERDICT This robust historical novel by an award-winning Canadian screenwriter will captivate fans of Sarah Waters and Charles Dickens."

Library Journal

Daniel O'Thunder: A Novel

This entertaining historical novel uses multiple narrators to tell the story of a failed bare-knuckle fighter turned into a raging but magnetic evangelist. Set in mid-19th century England and Gold Rush BC, we follow a failed actor and cleric, a teenage prostitute, a newspaperman and a retired soldier as they travel in the wake of the dynamic preacher as he cuts a swath through 1850s London in his efforts to engage the Devil in a final fight. Realistic depictions of the underbelly of the Industrial Revolution reveal a harsh but compassionate world that enslaves the weak and defenseless, makes a sporting event out of murderous boxing matches and public hangings, and tries to find a way to enable caring.

Weir is also a screenwriter and playwright who has won Gemini, Jessie, Leo and Writers Guild of Canada awards.

Caution: Includes coarse language and depictions of explicit violence.