The Tar Sands Diplomat: A Novel of the Canadian Foreign Service

The Russians have a plan to kill Canadian oil exports. And Canada has a diplomat clueless enough to stop them.

Macgregor is on a dream posting to Brussels, until a red-haired Russian prostitute dramatically murders the Canadian Mission’s star diplomat and plunges Macgregor into a world of spooks, Russian oligarchs and eco-hacktivists.

After Ottawa sends the G-7’s least competent security team to Brussels to investigate, Macgregor realizes that—for the first time in his career—he actually has to do something. Fortunately he has something no one else does: Ottawa’s biggest collection of spy novels.

Unable to penetrate the digital defenses of the opposition, or even operate his own Blackberry, Macgregor falls back on spy-novel classics: disguises, midnight burglaries and hidden microphones. To his surprise, they lead him towards the truth. Unfortunately for Macgregor, they also lead him towards a well-connected Canadian oil company and the Prime Minister’s Office back in Ottawa.