The colony of British Columbia, 1863. "Boston" Jim Milroy, a lone trapper and trader with an eidetic memory and a tragic unreckoned past, has become obsessed with reciprocating a seemingly minor kindness from the loquacious Dora Hume, a settler in the Cowichan Valley of Vancouver Island. Dora’s kindness and her life story both haunt Boston Jim, and his precise recollections inspire his attempts to buy something suitable for her in return. Eventually his search leads him to the gold rush town of Barkerville on the trail of Dora’s capricious husband Eugene—the one thing, after all, that she really wants.

Since graduating from the University of British Columbia, Claire Mulligan’s award-winning short stories have appeared in many literary publications. She has travelled extensively and currently lives in Pennsylvania. The Reckoning of Boston Jim is her first novel.