Prior to turning her hand to writing West Coast mysteries, R.J. (Rachel) McMillen and her husband explored B.C.'s coastal waters for 30 years on a sailboat that they built.

The mid-coast provided the settings for many of the scenes in her first novel, Dark Moon Walking (Namu, Klemtu, Hakai Pass area) and Nootka Island (Friendly Cove) on the east side of Vancouver Island features prominently in Black Tide Rising. A third title in her series, Green River Falling, will feature Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii. Her reluctant detective in all these stories is a former cop, Dan Connor, who likes to go exploring by boat.

In the debut novel, Dark Moon Walking (TouchWood $14.95), Connor works alongside an Inndigenous man he once busted in order to track down a missing biologist--while encountering a wide range of eccentric coastal characters on east coast of Vancouver Island.

In the follow-up story also set on Nootka Island, Black Tide Rising, Connor is again unwillingly involved in a murder mystery when he discovers blood at the site of destroyed sacred totem on the beach where Captain Cook landed at Friendly Cove (aka Yuquot).

A Summerland business owner and a freelance magazine writer, R.J. (Rachel) McMillen was born in England and raised in Australia.

BOOKS:

Dark Moon Walking (TouchWood, 2014) $14.95 9781771510660

Black Tide Rising (Touchwood Editions, 2015) $14.95 9781771511230

Green River Falling (Touchwood Editions, 2016) 978-1771511681

Gray Sea Running (Shogun, 2018) 978-1-7752002-0-8

[BCBW 2018]