Books By Ketsia Lessard

Ketsia Lessard, 2019

When a deathbed confession leads RCMP Constable Jasper Nelson to discover the existence of his illegitimate sister, his curiosity is piqued and he sets out to find her. He locates the young woman where he least expects to, within the police force itself. Raised by an Inuvialuit family and recruited as a community officer in the Northwest Territories, Nelson’s sibling Heidi Finlay has experienced a life quite unlike his own. Nelson soon obtains a transfer from Vancouver to Inuvik where he partners with the hardy Finlay to investigate criminal activity and trauma in the High Arctic. From bootlegging to child abuse, missing Indigenous women to suicide epidemics, the officers uncover corruption in the RCMP and examine their role as the “White Man” in a culture still reeling from the impacts of residential schools. Inspired by actual events, On Duty is a series of cases narrated by the constables themselves; through Nelson’s refined prose and Finlay’s no-nonsense reporting, a portrait of human nature emerges, emphasizing the possibility—and need—for divine redemption.

Ketsia Lessard, 2022

After an attempt to unveil corruption nearly costs him his life, Jasper Nelson resigns from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in disgrace. Refusing to let the matter drop, the workaholic tries his hand at investigative journalism, but his efforts are met with scorn by the media, where bias and misinformation are gaining ground. Dejected and tormented by painful memories from the field, Nelson sinks into life-threatening despair. The only thing standing between him and self-destruction is his half-sister, Heidi Finlay. In order to cheer him up and teach him to rest, Finlay accompanies the suicidal man on an excursion to Vancouver Island where Nelson mysteriously vanishes, “swallowed up” by an 800-year-old cedar tree. Inspired by documented wilderness disappearances, this sequel to Lessard’s debut novel On Duty takes readers on a journey into the human psyche. Narrated by Heidi Finlay, Nelson’s Sabbath is a symbolic tale in which the servile ideal retreats to allow an authentic spiritual connection.