When Hurricane Hazel tore through Toronto on October 15, 1954, it left its mark on both the city and its inhabitants. In the aftermath, a young cop named Ray Townes emerges as a hero--numerous accounts detail the way he battled the raging Humber River to save those trapped in their homes--and his story is featured prominently in the newspapers, thrusting him into the spotlight as a local celebrity. Meanwhile, his wife Mary is wrestling with doubts about her husband's heroism. While performing her own miracles the night of the storm as a nurse at a mud-filled, overcrowded emergency room, Mary met a woman--disoriented and near death--with a disturbingly peculiar recollection of events. While Mary tries to shake her suspicions about Ray as they rebuild their life in the shell-shocked city, she can't help but wonder about her husband and that fateful night. When a reporter comes knocking 50 years later to revisit that horrendous night, the truth begins to surface and threatens to destroy them. Cleverly constructed with meticulous research, this work of historical fiction includes a new section filled with author interviews, new insights in the work, and bonus work from the author.

Mark Sinnett is the author of The Landing, poetry, winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award; Bull, short stories; Some Late Adventure of the Feelings (ECW Press, 2000), poetry; and The Border Guards, a novel/thriller, short-listed for the Arthur Ellis award. He lives in Kingston, ON.