Strangers

Strangers is the first novel in The Reckoner series. The story follows Cole Harper, a seventeen-year-old Indigenous teenager with an anxiety disorder, as he returns to the remote community of Wounded Sky First Nation after a decade-long absence to confront a string of murders, a mysterious epidemic, and unresolved questions about his own supernatural abilities.

In the prologue, Choch, a trickster spirit who shifts between coyote and human form, lures Ashley, one of Cole's oldest friends from Wounded Sky, into Blackwood Forest using texts sent from his friend Brady's stolen phone, asking Ashley to convince Cole to return home. Ashley refuses.

Cole lives in Winnipeg with his grandmother and Auntie Joan, who moved him away from Wounded Sky 10 years earlier after a fire destroyed the community's elementary school, killing most of Cole's classmates and his mother. When urgent texts from Ashley arrive asking him to come home, Auntie Joan forbids the trip, but Cole's grandmother secretly gives him nearly $2,000 and a tobacco tie, a small bundle of sacred medicine, urging him to lay it at the upcoming memorial for the fire's victims. Cole books a flight and leaves while his aunt sleeps.

Cole arrives to find no one waiting. Residents blame him for the fire's aftermath, believing he selfishly saved only his two best friends, Eva Kirkness and Brady, while leaving everyone else to die. At the abandoned research facility where his father died in a mysterious accident, a security guard named Scott Thomas taunts Cole. At a hockey game, Cole reunites with Brady, who greets him warmly, and Eva, who is angry after 10 years of silence. Cole learns Eva is dating Michael Captain. During the game, Chief Sam Crate collapses with severe flu-like symptoms. Cole's attempt at CPR draws hostility, and he flees, having a panic attack and spilling most of his medication.

That night, Cole visits Ashley's trailer. Ashley reveals he never sent the texts: Someone stole his phone to lure Cole home. A bullet shatters the window and kills Ashley. Choch reappears and admits he sent the texts, reminding Cole of a deal they struck during the school fire. As a seven-year-old, Cole encountered Choch in the burning gymnasium and begged for help saving Eva, who was pinned under a collapsed wall. Choch granted him superhuman strength in exchange for a future favor, enabling Cole to lift the wall and rescue Eva and Brady. That favor is now due. Choch introduces Jayne Flett, the ghost of a classmate who died in the fire, half of her body perpetually aflame. Jayne is trapped in a spiritual limbo within the northern lights and cannot move on until Cole fulfills his obligation. If he refuses, everyone in the community will die. Cole reluctantly agrees. Wayne Kirkness, Eva's father and the community constable, finds Cole covered in Ashley's blood and questions him.

Cole wakes at Elder Mariah's house and reconnects with Brady, Eva, and Michael while secretly interacting with Choch, who works at the local diner under the name "C." No one but Cole recognizes Choch as anything more than a regular community member. Choch warns that revealing their deal will kill Eva and Brady. Brady opens up about his secret relationship with Ashley and the pain of losing him. At the diner, Choch engineers a confrontation; Cole catches a punch from Tristan Crowfoot, a hostile community member, with superhuman reflexes, shocking everyone. Brady confirms he witnessed Cole lift the gymnasium wall during the fire, validating Cole's abilities.

At an emergency meeting, Reynold McCabe, head of a private security company running for Chief, announces school closures and a curfew. The flu spreads rapidly, and Chief Crate dies. Cole concludes Ashley was murdered and enlists Brady to help find the killer. They and Eva track the killer's trail through Blackwood Forest to a military-neat campsite but are chased away. Cole forms a bond with Alex Captain, Michael's younger sister. Days later, Alex is shot and killed through her bedroom window, the same method used on Ashley. Cole had walked Alex home the previous night but conceals this from Wayne.

Hostility intensifies. At a vigil, Mark Fontaine, a former security guard, publicly accuses Cole of bringing the sickness and committing the murders. At a memorial gathering, Mark reveals that Cole was with Alex the night she died, turning even Cole's friends against him.

Cole returns to the campsite with Jayne. In the killer's backpack, he finds a classified folder linking his dead classmates, Ashley, Alex, Eva, and himself to an experimental drug trial. Files on fire victims are labeled "EXPERIMENTAL" or "PLACEBO," all stamped "UNSUCCESSFUL." Ashley's and Alex's photos bear red X marks. Cole's file is stamped "SUCCESSFUL," noting his father conducted an unauthorized trial using a biological agent called God Flare, whose symptoms match the epidemic. Cole realizes his father secretly administered the treatment through daily vitamins during his childhood. Eva's file has no red X; she and Cole are the only living subjects.

A gunshot interrupts him. Cole finds Maggie Green, Tristan's girlfriend, shot dead, though she does not appear in the folder. Reynold arrives immediately, handcuffs Cole, who picked up the murder weapon, and knocks him unconscious. In jail, Cole warns Wayne that Eva is the next target. He has a transformative exchange with Lauren Flett, a constable and Jayne's older sister, who has hated Cole for 10 years. Cole describes finding Jayne's body in the fire and breaks down. Jayne appears invisibly and touches Lauren's cheek through the bars; Lauren gasps, feeling sudden warmth. With the memorial approaching and Eva at risk, Cole channels his grief into bending the prison bars and escapes.

He hides near the memorial and joins the honor song from the treeline, singing in Cree, an Indigenous language. After the ceremony, a gunman in a balaclava emerges and targets Eva. Cole charges across the field and tackles him, but Wayne is shot in the stomach during the chaos. Cole carries Wayne to the clinic, where Dr. Kate Captain, the community's sole physician, stabilizes him.

Cole and Eva return to the campsite and unmask the gunman as Scott Thomas, the security guard from the research facility. Scott admits he was hired but refuses to name his employer and denies killing Maggie. Jayne assists by burning Scott's gun barrel with her flaming hand, forcing him to drop it. Scott stabs Cole in the chest; Eva shoots Scott, saving Cole's life.

Cole wakes in the clinic. Elder Mariah is dying from the virus. Reasoning that his file's "SUCCESSFUL" label means his blood carries the cure, Cole and his friends attempt a transfusion, but Dr. Captain intervenes, properly dilutes his blood, and administers it intravenously. Elder Mariah wakes within minutes. Four strangers from Mihko Laboratories, the organization that ran the facility where Cole's father worked, arrive claiming to help with the outbreak. Dr. Captain discreetly pockets Cole's remaining blood before leaving with them. Eva distributes the diluted cure to other patients and notices that Cole's stab wound has scarred over in a single day. Cole tells Eva he would like to return to Wounded Sky; she says that would be all right.

In the final scene, Cole lays the tobacco tie at the school ruins and prays for the first time in years, reconnecting with spiritual practices he had rejected for a decade. Choch reveals the mission is far from over: Jayne cannot yet move on, the classified folder remains at the campsite where it could prove valuable, and school resumes Monday. Cole protests, but Choch insists Cole is only beginning. The identity of whoever hired Scott, the origins of the God Flare experiments, and the arrival of Mihko Laboratories remain unresolved, setting up the next installment.