Things are going well for Pete Singer - he's happily married with two healthy sons and a job that more than pays the bills - until he receives the first email. It is a list of 247 names. Just the list - no salutation, no signature, no explanation.

When Singer receives the second email, he cannot resist tapping the link at the top of the page. It shows a young girl unconscious, malnourished and laying on a rough dirt floor. It ends with a disembodied voice - "Peter, twenty-five dollars will save her life."

At first, he follows the advice of friends and family and resists the plea. However, he soon receives a second video of the same young girl struggling to take a breath - her last. He begins to donate. But he can't stop - even when it means lying to his wife and putting his family's financial future in jeopardy.

Eventually, the financial sacrifices that Singer is willing to make on behalf of strangers strays so far from social acceptability that he loses his friends, his job, his marriage, and his family. On a day that feels as if it may be among his last, he meets the architect of the mission that he has been supporting.

She shows him the way to a life he had never imagined possible - if he is willing to take the first step. ,

Autorentext

Jeff Houlahan is an ecologist and conservation biologist with a 20-year active research program focused on animal and plant biology. His journey to this field has been unconventional. As a child of an Air Force member, he grew up in various military towns across Canada, including Calgary, North Bay, Kapuskasing, Ottawa, and two Canadian Air Force bases in Germany, Lahr and Baden-Sollingen.

Houlahan has had a diverse range of jobs, including waiter, security guard (a memorable stint as a 19-year-old in full uniform at a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show), bartender, pool liner manufacturer, mail deliverer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and guitarist in a punk band called The Rainkings, named after Henderson the Rain King.

He holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario and B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Ottawa. Between his two undergraduate degrees, he met and married his wife, Kim, with whom he has three children: Joe, Liam, and Chelsea.

Following his doctoral studies, Houlahan completed a short post-doctoral position at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. It was there that he first encountered a sign requesting patrons to "please leave your guns at the door," a sight that left a lasting impression. During his time in New Mexico, he worked with renowned ecologist James Brown, notable for being Barbara Kingsolver's M.Sc. supervisor at the University of Arizona.

Houlahan subsequently accepted a professorship at the University of New Brunswick, where he continues to teach and conduct research. Alongside his academic career, he has been an active writer, producing short stories, songs, and, over the past decade, full-length novels. He has published several short stories in online journals and recently signed a three-book deal with Level Best Books. His crime novels Long Train Home (published in March 2022) and Boom Boom's Last Call (released on January 30, 2024) are part of this agreement, with a third novel forthcoming.