Always Love a Villain on San Juan Island (43 page)

The Slickrock Paradox

by Stephen Legault

Silas Pearson is looking for answers. It's been more than three years since his wife, Penelope de Silva, disappeared while working on a conservation project in Utah's red rock wilderness. Law enforcement authorities have given up hope of finding the adventurous Penelope alive. And some suggest that she may not have vanished into the desert at all, but simply left Silas for another man. Silas moves to Moab, where his wife was last seen, with one purpose: finding his wife, dead or alive. His search takes him into a spectacular wilderness of red rock canyons, soaring mesas, and vertical earth, where he must confront his failures as a husband and his guilt over not being there when Penelope needed him most.

The Slickrock Paradox
is the first book in the Red Rock Canyon Mysteries, a series of books that explores an iconic American landscape through an atypical anti-hero who is deeply flawed, reluctant, and yet familiar.

Copyright © 2013 Sandy Frances Duncan and George Szanto

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit
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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Duncan, Sandy Frances, 1942–

Always love a villain on San Juan Island [electronic resource] / Sandy Frances Duncan, George Szanto.

Electronic monograph issued in various formats.
Also issued in print format.
ISBN 978-1-77151-025-7 (HTML).--ISBN 978-1-77151-026-4 (PDF)

I. Szanto, George, 1940– II. Title.
PS8557.U5375A48 2013 C813'.54 C2013-901757-7

Editor: Rhonda Bailey
Proofreader: Christine Savage
Cover image: Gary Unwin,
istockphoto.com

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for our publishing activities from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, and the province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.