The Life & Deaths of Magnus Bruun

Magnus Bruun is a war hero, lauded by his native Rupert’s Land. Singularly responsible for the assassination of 545 enemy soldiers, his skills as a marksman and sniper were discovered, nurtured and exploited by a desperate nation. His skills as a killer are celebrated and honoured by a thankful society. 

But Magnus has a dark past; he has already begun to use his skills to kill, and has become judge, jury and executioner in a series of moralistic murders.

How will society react when it discovers that its state-sponsored killer is a murderer in his own right?

The novel is set in the 1930s. The story sits in a fictitious setting, with some loose historical context. It imagines a different history for North America in which the old provinces of Canada become warring nationalistic states. Rupert's Land is also in the grip of an economic depression, much like that of 1930's America. The military exploits of Magnus Bruun are loosely based on Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper who famously became a war hero when Russia invaded Finland in 1939. His assassination tally was 542.