Eight months after his own brush with death over Alberta’s Cardinal Divide, Cole Blackwater has learned that his good friend and former client Archie Ravenwing is presumed dead on the waters of British Columbia’s Broughton Archipelago. Days before his disappearance, Ravenwing was on the brink of unravelling a corporate conspiracy surrounding an outbreak of sea lice that could decimate wild salmon along the BC coastline.

While Cole and newspaper reporter Nancy Webber search for answers, Cole is haunted by the dark secret surrounding his own father’s mysterious death. For Nancy Webber, whose long-forgotten feelings for Cole have risen to the surface again, getting to the bottom of Cole’s family history becomes both a professional and personal obsession.

The Darkening Archipelago, the second book of the Cole Blackwater series, is a race to keep both human souls and wild ecosystems from falling into darkness.

Praise for The Darkening Archipelago

“Raymond Chandler gave us Philip Marlowe, a world-weary investigator who solved murders with a quip and an eye for detail. Stephen Legault gives us Cole Blackwater, a hardboiled environmental investigator with a dark past and a fast right hook…. Like Chandler, Legault tells a story that is fast-paced and rich, revealing just enough to keep our eye following the ball under the cup.”
~ Mayana C. Slobodian, Monday Magazine

“An exciting read…. His stories reveal true human conflict and emotion, and portray characters with varied opinions about current issues, such as how a town with no economy might look at salmon farming as an opportunity. Legault has no shortage of characters or ideas.”
~ Steve Carey, Victoria Times-Colonist

Eight months after his own brush with death over Alberta’s Cardinal Divide, Cole Blackwater has learned that his good friend and former client Archie Ravenwing is presumed dead on the waters of British Columbia’s Broughton Archipelago. Days before his disappearance, Ravenwing was on the brink of unravelling a corporate conspiracy surrounding an outbreak of sea lice that could decimate wild salmon along the BC coastline.

While Cole and newspaper reporter Nancy Webber search for answers, Cole is haunted by the dark secret surrounding his own father’s mysterious death. For Nancy Webber, whose long-forgotten feelings for Cole have risen to the surface again, getting to the bottom of Cole’s family history becomes both a professional and personal obsession.

The Darkening Archipelago, the second book of the Cole Blackwater series, is a race to keep both human souls and wild ecosystems from falling into darkness.

Praise for The Darkening Archipelago

“Raymond Chandler gave us Philip Marlowe, a world-weary investigator who solved murders with a quip and an eye for detail. Stephen Legault gives us Cole Blackwater, a hardboiled environmental investigator with a dark past and a fast right hook…. Like Chandler, Legault tells a story that is fast-paced and rich, revealing just enough to keep our eye following the ball under the cup.”
~ Mayana C. Slobodian, Monday Magazine

“An exciting read…. His stories reveal true human conflict and emotion, and portray characters with varied opinions about current issues, such as how a town with no economy might look at salmon farming as an opportunity. Legault has no shortage of characters or ideas.”
~ Steve Carey, Victoria Times-Colonist