The Money Burn

Bryan Hayter worked as a marketing and communications co-ordinator for a consulting engineering firm; he lived in Elora, Ontario.

Tony Foster’s adventure/crime novel has all the right ingredients to achieve success with those who like their novels full of vicarious thrills. The fact that it all takes place in Canada and that the good guys (and bad) are home-grown adds an extra element to the brew.

It’s an unpredictable tale of people setting out to commit a major train robbery. The take? Used money routinely shipped to Ottawa for burning. The apparently fool-proof and deceptively simple plot is hatched by none other than a parole officer who conveniently (and astutely) picks the most likely accomplices from his own case load.

By applying their various talents to the matter, he plots a heist that takes advantage of Canadian geography in a unique way. It seems there is a perfect place in this nation to remove a valuable cargo from a train.

Several sub-plots, which focus on the lives of his ex-con “team,” accompany the progression of events leading up to the main event, adding extra tension to the plot.

The author has produced a complicated and interesting story with few weaknesses. In flavor the book has a decidedly anti-establishment tone, based as it is on the actions of people who see the world from the wrong side of the law. His people are a rather virtuous but hard-done-by lot, all of whom seem to have been wronged by the law on powerful interests. But they are believable in Foster’s prose. This is important because the reader must be brought into sympathy with the crime and its perpetrators.

It’s not great literature but The Money Burn has all the virtues of a good travel or cottage novel-romance: adventure, likeable characters, surprise, and scenery. It’s fun to read a Canadian high adventure, even if crime against the state is the order of the day. We should be somewhat dismayed! But, after all, it was only money on the way to the flames.

Chalk this up as a good addition to the paper-back racks. For once, the rugged splendors of this country are gaining their rightful place in the pages of the popular novels that sell so well and serve those looking for a little escape.