Stolen

Fiction. Rowan Friesen has made a career of drug dealing and small-time thievery. He lives a loner's life on the outer reaches of Saskatoon, selling crystal meth to highschoolers and hawking his pilfered loot on the net. Shiftless and seemingly friendless, he is, at first glance, an unlikely and unlikable protagonist. But as STOLEN unfolds, we learn the details on Rowan's life: his well-meaning but self-absorbed mother, his mentally ill father and a high school friendship both lustful and incendiary. This intriguing back-story runs alongside a present-day murder mystery, complete with road trips, arson, alchohol and drugs, tech nerds and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Rowan Friesen may not be the world's most likable character, but the complexity and honesty of his story is thrilling. STOLEN's lean, tight narrative tells a tale of theft, love, and madness on the Canadian prairie, and moves along like a half-ton pickup bouncing over dirt roads.