Born and raised in Quebec's Eastern Townships, Maurice J. O. Crossfield spent nearly 15 years as a daily newspaper reporter at The Sherbrooke Record. He then struck out on his own to work as a professional writer, translator and editor of Harrowsmith's Almanac and Harrowsmith's Gardening Digest. Not content with a single line of work, he has also worked as an auto mechanic, handyman, forestry worker and organic gardener. He lives in the quiet hamlet of West Brome with his wife, musician Sarah Biggs, their two kids and an assortment of dogs and cats.

"I half expected a benefit dance at the Legion to help out a young family displaced by fire, but this is not your warm and fuzzy Eastern Townships. This is a place of secrets and long histories, an off—island Wild West. The seventies setting is the perfect era for this smokey, leaded gas, ink—stained tale, and it establishes a compelling atmosphere of both nostalgia and dread in which the vivid action and characters take place. I think Maurice has successfully created a new genre: Townships noir."
——Ross Murray, former journalist for the Stanstead Journal, author, and contributor to the humour column at both the Sherbrooke Record and CBC radio.