SNAKE RIVER

A missing child. A haunted cop. A predator older than the forest itself.

1995 in Abalone Falls, Nova Scotia. Six Indigenous children have vanished from the nearby Snake River First Nation reserve. No witnesses. No bodies. Just fear and silence.

Corporal Robert Monroe has seen darkness before, in others and in himself. Haunted by addiction and the ghosts of his past, he's been on stress leave from the RCMP for months. But when a dead boy turns up in the wilderness outside of town, something in the case pulls him east. This is his shot at redemption.

In town, Globe and Mail reporter Alex Carson is chasing a very different story: a corporate land grab, a looming fisherman's strike, and a CEO with big money dreams of turning native land into a resort. But when she crosses paths with Monroe in a smoky pool hall, the two begin to connect the dots between corruption, cover-ups... and something much worse.

Locals whisper of a wendigo, an ancient forest spirit that feeds on death. But monsters wear many faces. What they uncover in Snake River defies logic. And it demands blood.

Snake River is the gripping debut novel by C.R. Riddell. It's a raw, atmospheric mystery where folklore, addiction, and justice collide in coastal Nova Scotia.