During World War II, a German agent landed in Canada from a U-boat. Curtis Parkinson has used this true historical event to tell a fast-paced, exciting story. Sixteen-year-old Scott and his friend Adam find summer jobs as deckhands on the Rapids Prince, a ship that plies the waters between the town of Prescott, on the St. Lawrence River, and Montreal. Scott overhears convincing information that a German agent is actually on board the boat. He has a good reason for not telling anybody, but his silence eventually leads him into more trouble than he can imagine, including a possible murder and a kidnapping. It is up to the boys to expose the agent in order to save the Rapids Prince and the innocent passengers on board. Curtis Parkinson has written an impossible-to-put-down novel that combines history with high adventure.
Curtis Parkinson grew up in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated from Queen's University in chemical engineering and worked in South America and in Canada for many years. Then he moved to the Caribbean to live on a sailboat and to write, a lifelong dream. As Curtis says, "Many rejections later, the cat fell off the boat one night, and the cat's story became my first book, Tom Foolery."
More picture books and short stories followed, then five young adult novels.
Curtis's first novel was Storm-Blast, the story of three lost teens adrift in the vast Caribbean Sea. Next came Sea Chase,a tale of a boy's desperate search for his father, missing from their sailboat in the night. Both were nominated for Red Cedar Awards, and Sea Chase for the Arthur Ellis Award as well.
Domenic's War, Curtis's third novel, is based on the true story of a 12-year-old Italian boy caught in the midst of one of the fiercest battles of World War II. It was nominated for a Silver Birch Award, and has been translated into Italian.
Death in Kingsport,published in 2007, is a murder mystery featuring a 15-year-old sleuth, Neil, his sidekick, Graham, and new friend Crescent in a town where nothing is as it seems.
Just out, another exciting murder mystery with Neil, Graham and Crescent.The Castle on Deadman's Island tells the story of a mysterious disappearance, a castle with a curse, and a most unusual will, a will that leads to murder and mayhem.
Bibliography — Curtis Parkinson
Young Adult Novels The Castle on Deadman's Island (Tundra), 2009 Death in Kingsport (Tundra), 2007 Domenic's War (Tundra), 2006 Sea Chase (Tundra), 2004 Storm-Blast (Tundra), 2003
Picture Books Emily's Eighteen Aunts (Fitzhenry), 2002 Mr. Reez's Sneezes (Annick), 1999 Tom Foolery (Bradbury Press) , 1993
Short Stories Wings, appeared in First Times, short story collection (Tundra), 2007 The Double-Ender, appeared in The Antigonish Review, 1993 The Reluctant Alien, appeared in The New Quarterly, 1993
