Lake on the Mountain

October 24, 2011
In this skillfully told first in a new series from Canadian author Round (Vanished in Vallarta), Dan Sharp, a Toronto missing persons investigator and gay single father, is thrilled to be invited to a wedding in Prince Edward County. Thom Killingworth, an old friend of Dan’s commitment-phobic lover, Bill, is marrying his mail-order “bride,” Sebastiano Ballancourt, on the family yacht. But first Dan must look into the disappearance of a teenage boy. As he hits the haunts of runaway teens, Dan is reminded of his own dark youth and vows to keep his 14-year-old son, Ked, from such pain and misery. Dan’s hopes for a romantic weekend with Bill are dashed as prewedding jitters between Thom and Sebastiano turn into high tension. The fatal fall of Sebastiano’s sister off the yacht soon looks much more like murder than an accident. Round draws readers deep into Dan’s physical and psychological worlds, balancing his protagonist’s faults with his gifts as an investigator and father.