The Judas Hills

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

To bankroll his career as a budding writer, reformed drug addict and
ex-drunkard Terry Belshaw signs a six-month contract to work as a crew
member at a logging camp on British Columbia’s beautiful Bligh Inlet.
The stand of first growth timber to be harvested is guarded by Mesachie
Mountain, an ominous presence laden with Indian folklore, hoodoo
pictographs, and a mythic hex against white loggers who had formerly
tried to strip the adjacent hills of their timber.

Led by the hard-drinking, tough-talking camp owner, Garfield Hobson,
the motley gang of loggers set out to tackle the mountain and its
legends. Along the way, they get more than they contracted for: a series
of crashing runaway logs, torn restraining belts, warning whistles
mysteriously blocked from blowing, impenetrable fog, horrific lightning
strikes, deluging downpours, banshee winds that scream from the very
face of the mountain, and a pod of patrolling killer whales that live up
to their name. Despite the gory “accidental” deaths of some of the
loggers, the departure of several uncontracted crew members, the lunatic
antics of the bull cook, and a mutiny, Belshaw remains loyal to Hobson,
in part because he is smitten by the 17-year-old daughter of Hobson’s
mistress.

Indian mythology and logging lore, believable and unique characters,
and a spine-tingling storyline are among the many pleasures of this
entertaining novel; it concludes with a final battle between man and
myth.