A mother's pain. A million dollars. A missing son. Desperate to right old wrongs, a new client hires Russell Quant to locate her son, Matthew, lost to her for twenty years. But can money relieve remorse? Through good old-fashioned detective work, Russell peels away the layers of a carefully concealed life, grown from the seeds of traumatic childhood violence. Tracking Matthew's life from the schoolyard drug culture of a pleasant prairie city's underbelly to the stunning vistas, vibrant townships, and tinderbox safaris of Africa, Russell finds much more than he was looking for. Ever adept at making both friends and foes, Quant runs a gauntlet of uncharted danger as worlds collide. Thrust into the unfamiliar role of bad guy, stymied by seemingly insurmountable distrust and base fear, Russell cuts a blistering swath through covert threats and overt bullets. But as he searches for his Canadian needle in an African haystack, the brutality escalates. Confronting his own role in the cause and effect of scars and anger, retribution and revenge, Russell Quant faces a difficult question: What happens when the prodigal son resists the return? Praise for Anthony Bidulka's previous books "Quant makes for a riveting herothe kind of friend you want to have unless you're a killer." Mystery Scene Magazine (New York) "... an entertaining read, fast and funny and with lots of tender moments." NOW Magazine (Toronto) "Saskatoon's master of suspense ratchets up the tension ..." Planet S (Saskatoon) "Bidulka's skill makes the story so vivid that we feel as if we are the friend holding the flashlight while Quant explores the tunnel ahead." Wayves (Halifax)