Author: Jeff Wilson
Beautiful desolation: Such a lovely place to disappear forever. Rayne McRae is a taut psychological thriller set in the seductive wilderness of British Columbia. With diversified and unforgettable characters, it pulls you into a story that gives a voice to the lost women of the Highway of Tears.
There is no exact count of the women missing from the infamous highway in British Columbia, Canada. Official reports state that nineteen girls have vanished since the first young victim disappeared in 1969 from a motel bar at Williams Lake. Jack Malchenko, a detective with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Prince Rupert, believes the total could be well over one hundred. He sees their faces every day on the wall in his office. The victims haunt his dreams. It drives Jack to keep searching the secluded logging trails for any evidence that might help give closure to the families who have lost their loved ones. During an investigation at the farm owned by serial killer Willie Pickton, health issues derailed his career. As the years pass, Jack continues working the highway cases as a private sleuth for hire until loving pressure from his wife, Angela, reaches a breaking point. She wants to spend their golden years together without the detective work getting in the way, so Jack finally agrees to hand over all the old case files to his former partner, Sam.
Everything changes when Rayne McRae, a beautiful high school girl from the Moricetown Reserve, goes missing and her life is put up for auction. The public cannot turn away from this sensational crime. They fixate on Rayne’s coral-green eyes, along with the tantalizing live video feed of her naked body tied in ropes. Rayne’s struggle for dignity compels sympathisers to vote for her salvation. As Jack gets pulled into this new mystery, a Cease and Desist order arrives from his former Mountie station, warning him of investigating anything else highway-related.
With his future and marriage on the line, Jack knows that if he wants to solve this newest abduction, he will have to trust Taima White Elk of the Kyuquot band for help. Taima was the best tracker available, but also Jack’s estranged father, who abandoned him as a child. Jack struggles with a decision until realizing there are hidden clues in the disturbing video of Rayne’s murder auction. They all connect back to the place where Jack barely survived; the farm of the most notorious killer in Canada’s history. Jack’s past nightmares were coming for him again.