"I don't go looking for it, but trouble seems to find me."
It's the summer of 1977 in Medicine Hat, Alberta and twelve-year-old Will Widmann's biggest problems are worrying about starting junior high in the fall, maintaining his summer lawn-mowing business, and avoiding the bullying Lowe brothers. But a bigger problem emerges when he meets Harper, a tough-talking teenaged girl who seems to be hiding in fear for her life. Will doesn't know it yet, but evil has come to sleepy Medicine Hat, and by helping Harper he'll be running afoul of a criminal gang and ending up at the centre of a robbery, kidnapping, and murder plot that puts him into heart-stopping danger.
Told in Will Widmann's anxious, self-deprecating, and frequently hilarious voice, Chinook is a fast-paced thriller with a painfully observant perspective on emerging from childhood into adolescence as well as touching relationships; colorful, specific characters; complicated family dynamics; and sharp, funny dialogue.