Pretensions, conspiracy, lies … all play a part in this riveting book that kicks off TouchWood Editions’ new mystery series featuring Coast Salish investigator Silas Seaweed.

A billionaire’s daughter with an unsavoury past has mysteriously disappeared. Silas Seaweed, a savvy, street-smart investigator based in Victoria, B.C., is put on the case. His search for the young woman leads him on a trail of murder, greed and obsessive violence. Overcoming such obstacles as a pair of ruthless cocaine dealers, the murder of key witnesses and a failed attempt on his own life, Seaweed perseveres in his quest to bring a master criminal to justice, his journey taking him from the darker side of Victoria’s downtown to Nevada’s glittering casinos.

Blending modern-day crime detection with age-old Coast Salish ritual, Seaweed on the Street is an absorbing, suspenseful page-turner with a pace that never lets up from the first page to the last.

Now a full-time writer, Stanley Evans has been a soldier, a surveyor, and deep-sea fisherman. He once spent several months travelling up and down the Amazon and its tributaries. A former college instructor, he began his writing career in newspapers and magazines. He worked one season in Canada's Northwest Territories, as a crewman on the George Askew, one of Canada's last functioning paddlewheelers. Evans` hobbies are reading, carving wooden duck decoys, and conversation. He lives in Victoria.

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Makes great use of West Coast aboriginal mythology and religion . . . Let's hope Silas Seaweed returns. —Globe and Mail