ABOUT THE BOOK

THE FAITHFUL

As the story opens, Jacob Waldner, 33, travels from his Hutterite colony in southern Manitoba to Winnipeg for a secret rendez-vous at a luxurious Airbnb. That afternoon Winnipeg homicide detective Michael Shelter and his partner, Gabriel Traverse, are called to the house where Jacob’s body has been found with his throat slashed. How could a leader of a strictly pacifist farming community end up murdered in an expensive rental in the city?

To investigate, Shelter travels to the closed world of the Hutterite colony at harvest time. The murder has shattered the tranquility of colony, where the faithful practise a devoutly Christian and strictly pacificist way of life, passed down for 500 years. As he investigates, Shelter uncovers secrets, conflict and smouldering resentment toward the Hutterites in the surrounding farming community.

Struggling to solve this baffling case, Shelter must also contend with a crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and the haunting aftermath of a deadly shooting.

There are an estimated 58,000 Hutterites living on over 540 colonies in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the northern United States. About three-quarters of the Hutterites live in Canada, where their ancestors moved during the First World War to escape persecution for their pacifism. They farm large tracts of land across the prairies and are an important part of rural life in Western Canada.