1963 – Finn Kenny fled Ottawa after being implicated in an RCMP purge of suspected Communist sympathisers and “homosexuals”, ending up on Vancouver Island working for the Spencerwood Estate alongside devoted caretakers, the Bishops. Theodore Spencer was Finn’s saviour, a barroom companion who offered him a way out of his predicament. But when Spencer dies suddenly, Finn’s life is turned upside down as he’s forced to work with the cold, calculating lady of the house.

Thrown together unexpectedly, Finn, Lady Spencer, and the Bishops are faced with the worst of one another, as they struggle to keep the estate together. Learning more about each other’s lives, they must come to terms with the truth that everyone has secrets buried at the centre of themselves.

In his searching sixth novel, Danial Neil questions the stories we tell of our own lives, the version of ourselves we show to those closest, and the ways in which we are able to find common ground.

Danial Neil was born in New Westminster, British Columbia and grew up in North Delta. He began writing in his teens, journaling and writing poetry. He made a decision to be a writer in 1986 and took his first creative writing course in Langley with Alive magazine editor, Rhody Lake. While working for the City of Delta, he authored the motto, "Ours to Preserve by Hand and Heart" for the city's coat of arms in 1988. Danial worked steadily at his craft. His short story "Grace" was published in the 2003 Federation of BC Writers anthology edited by Susan Musgrave. He went on to participate in the Write Stretch Program with the Federation of BC Writers teaching free verse poetry to school children. As well participant in Word on the Street Vancouver. He won the Poetry Prize at the Surrey International Writers' Conference four times, and went on to study Creative Writing at UBC. His first published novel was The Killing Jars in 2006, and then Flight of the Dragonfly in 2009, my June in 2014, and The Trees of Calan Gray in 2015. Dominion of Mercy is his fifth published novel. He has completed twenty novels since beginning his writing journey. His prose has been called hauntingly beautiful and lyrical. His poetry and fiction articulate a close relationship with the land, its felt presence in his narrative and vision. His characters arrive like guests and leave an edible presence in a reader's experience. Danial lives in Oliver the South Okanagan of British Columbia.

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Praise for The Sum of One Man’s Pleasure

“Danial Neil, a master storyteller, embraces the mysterious and the unpredictable. Through a host of characters who appear fated to destroy the lives of others, not to mention their own, he weaves several compelling plots into a tapestry of small-town Vancouver Island life.” —Ron Smith, author of Improbable Journeys and The Defiant Mind