Poor Player

Jack Hall is the star of a hit TV show filmed in Los Angeles. But his growing fame isn't enough, and Jack decides to chuck it all to work for a human rights group headed by his sister, Peggy. The group's work is based in Central America, and Peggy sends her brother to Mexico City to learn Spanish. She asks for help from journalist Hugh Bruce, a long-time Latin America hand. But when Jack arrives, both he and Hugh get far more than they bargained for-and far less than they want.Settling temporarily in the capital, Jack quickly meets Hugh's assistant, Maru Campagna. Maru's family has been shattered by the death of her father, and she's trying to reinvent herself in ways her mother and uncle disapprove. When she falls into a relationship with Jack, Maru's family schemes for a quick marriage to a foreigner. But Maru isn't sure, and Jack has no intention of getting married. He's off to fight for human rights. At least he will be soon.Hugh Bruce is both the witness and narrator of Jack's quixotic quest. He's also friends with another foreigner who owns a resort in the hot-spring zone north of Mexico City. Wayne Gibbings is a former L.A. restauranteur who moved south for profit, not ideals. But his hotel is failing, located too near a mountainous area where long-time ranchers have found a lucrative new crop, growing marijuana back in the hills while clearing peasant farmers off their land. Rumour speaks of a massacre.When Jack arrives at the hotel with Maru and Hugh, he finds himself in the middle of a hair-trigger human rights case. Idealistic and unprepared, Jack tries to help-not that anyone asked. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say.Who will Jack take with him? Lesley Krueger is an award-winning novelist and filmmaker. Her latest novel, Far Creek Road, will be published by ECW Press this coming October. Set in the early 1960s, the book follows Tink Parker, an adventurous, nosy and very funny nine-year-old living a happy suburban life. But the Cold War is slowly building toward the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world is in danger of ending -- and Tink's innocence comes under threat.According to Sheila Murray, author of Finding Edward, "With the charming and very funny nine-year-old Tink, Krueger has created an unforgettable character whose innocent curiosity busts through the societal conventions of early 1960s Canada. This is a masterful depiction of an atmosphere tense with fear and fuelled by grown-up transgressions, where adult morality is contaminated by politics that tear communities apart."Lesley's previous novel, Time Squared, was published in 2021. Says critic Kerry Clare, "I'll dive right in and tell you that the novel, Time Squared by Lesley Krueger, which I've loved more than I've loved than any book I've read in ages, could be billed as Kate Atkinson's Life After Life meets Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, if we wanted to underline just how badly you really ought to read it. And oh, you really do."Lesley has written four other novels, two short story collections, a travel memoir and a children's book.She was born in Vancouver, Canada and after living in Boston, Mass., London, England, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City, she makes her home in Toronto. There she writes fiction, works on films, and plays hockey in a couple of women's beer leagues, at least when her ankle isn't broken.