Notorious

Keenan is bored. He is recovering from tuberculosis, acquired while overseas with his mom. Now he’s stuck sitting in a lawn chair at his dad’s place on Centerlight, Michigan, an island of about 7000 residents in the St. Clair River which is divided in two by the Canada-US border.

When Keenan meets a girl his age, ZeeBee, who lives on the Canadian side of the border, his life becomes anything but boring. ZeeBee is full of conspiracy theories. Paramount among her theories is that notorious gangster Tommy-Gun Ferguson (original owner of the house she now lives in) buried millions in treasure on the island during the Prohibition era. She’s also convinced her recently deceased dog Barney was murdered — apparently he was a notorious terror and not a favourite among the locals.

Keenan isn’t convinced by either of these theories, but soon some clues turn up that even he can’t ignore. Will the pair of them find the treasure and solve the mystery of what happened to Barney . . . or will the dog-murdering criminals find them first?

Told in Gordon’s now classic multi-voice style, his new novel combines mystery, comedy, and a story of new friendships.