Daniel O'Thunder Format: Paperback

An Amazon top 100 book of 2009!

A rollicking, comic and ultimately haunting tale of fist-fighting, faith and fine madness

In the 1850s, in the slums of the great city of London, Daniel O’Thunder, a troubled but charismatic former prize-fighter turned evangelist, runs a safe house for those in need of food, shelter, prayer and good counsel. But in London’s dark streets, an ancient evil is wreaking havoc, throwing into peril the lives of its most vulnerable souls. O’Thunder, getting on in years but still wielding a right fist dubbed “The Hammer of Heaven”, returns to the ring to start training for his greatest fight yet – with the Devil himself.

Surrounding O’Thunder is a strange collection of people who love him: Jack, a spectacularly failed cleric and worse actor who is the compiler of O’Thunder’s story; J.T.”Jaunty” Rennert, one-time recruiting sergeant, shady small-time operator and O’Thunder’s self-styled best friend; and Nell, the gold-hearted, foul-mouthed young prostitute who ultimately carries her love for O’Thunder into the wilds of the Cariboo gold-rush in faraway British Columbia, where the novel reaches its extraordinary apotheosis.

Daniel O’Thunder is a novel of amazing wealth of character and variety of voice. Comedy bumps up against cruelty, tragedy against farce, inhumanity against love—a dazzling debut that is hilarious, harrowing, and deeply moving.

Ian Weir is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He is the writer and executive producer of the acclaimed crime-thriller Dragon Boys, a CBC mini-series that first aired in 2007. Other TV credits include episodes for more than 20 different series, including Flashpoint, Cold Squad, Edgemont, Odyssey, ReBoot, Beachcombers and One Life to Live. Weir's stage plays have been produced across Canada as well as in the U.S. and England. He has won two Geminis, four Leos, a Jessie and the Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award. He lives in Langley, British Columbia.