The Dominion of Wyley McFadden

Geoff Cragg is a tenured instructor in the Faculty of General Studies at
the University of Calgary in Alberta.

“David Lynch meets W.O. Mitchell in the most exciting and
unpredictable road novel of the year.” Although hyperbolic and
simplistic, the back-cover blurb is more or less on the mark. Wyley
McFadden, a fertility specialist turned urban trapper, stops to pick up
a young female hitchhiker on the outskirts of Wawa, Ontario. The aptly
named Wyley is traveling from Toronto to Alberta on a secret mission: to
introduce rats into that smugly rodent-free province. The novel
chronicles the evolving relationship between Wyley and his passenger,
who has secrets of her own (including the bizarre and sinister events
that led her to appear dressed in tennis whites and toxic from mosquito
bites on the side of the road). The author recounts shocking and
disturbing events with a matter-of-factness and a droll humor that allow
for suspension of disbelief.