{"product_id":"vile-spirits-9781771622776","title":"Vile Spirits","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn exhilarating page-turner set in 1920s Vancouver post prohibition, when liquor was the fuel driving big business, big government--and major crime.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this spellbinding follow-up to his mystery \u003cem\u003eThe White Angel\u003c\/em\u003e, John MacLachlan Gray captures the spirit of Vancouver in those gritty, gin-soaked days, as the city was remaking itself between wars.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlcohol is once again legal in Vancouver after the failed experiment of prohibition, but pro-temperance sentiments remain strong. Politicians like Attorney General Gordon Cunning attempt appeasement by establishing the Liquor Control Board, which oversees supply, from the lofty circles of power down to bleak public drinking factories called \"beer parlours.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBut when Cunning is found deceased, an empty martini glass at his side, quickly followed by Mrs. Harlan Crombie, the wife of a prominent bureaucrat, who falls dead after an afternoon book club meeting, suspicions are raised. Is it pure coincidence that the deceased were both drinking the same brand of \"tonic\"? Or is it a spillover from American prohibition, where deliberately tainted booze is killing thousands?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFans of \u003cem\u003eThe White Angel\u003c\/em\u003e will be delighted by the return of straight-shooting constable Calvin Hook, frustrated poet-cum-reporter Ed McCurdy and unpredictable, eavesdropping telephone operator Mildred Wickstram, as they pool their skills in order to get to the truth.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe result is a clash between temperance activists, the Ku Klux Klan, the Liquor Control Board and global events on the mean streets of Vancouver--a rough little city on the edge of empire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGray, John MacLachlan:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn MacLachlan Gray\u003c\/strong\u003e is a playwright, composer and theatre director, responsible for many acclaimed productions, most notably \u003ci\u003eBilly Bishop Goes to War\u003c\/i\u003e (1978). He has authored several books, fiction and non-fiction, including most recently \u003ci\u003eThe White Angel\u003c\/i\u003e (Douglas \u0026amp; McIntyre, 2017). An Officer of the Order of Canada, Gray lives in Vancouver, BC.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Douglas \u0026 McIntyre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50382884962578,"sku":"9781771622776","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1777c244-eece-427c-b578-a6c96dd50e51.jpg?v=1728773225","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/vile-spirits-9781771622776","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}