Enrique Tomás lives a quiet life with a large, loving family in an unnamed South American country. But Enrique has secrets. When his second eldest son, Hector, and Hector’s beloved friend Nadia uncover one of Enrique’s secrets, the course of Hector's life is irrevocably altered. Exiled by his parents to the isolated countryside, Hector is accused of terrorism—a crime of which he is innocent, yet ruthlessly punished. As he struggles to extricate himself from the clutches of a brutal and paranoid military regime, he learns that freedom comes at a terrible price. The Crimes of Hector Tomás is an epic novel about disappearance and deception, family and nation. Enrique, Hector, and Nadia are trapped in a nightmare world where innocence counts for nothing and justice is a dream. Once they make their choices, they can never go back.

Ian Colford is a fiction writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His stories, reviews, and commentary have appeared in Canadian literary publications from coast to coast and in journals published online. From 1995 to 1998 he was editor of the literary journal Pottersfield Portfolio, and from 1994 to 2000 served on the executive board of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. In 1998 he selected and edited a collection of stories by Maritime writers called Water Studies. Written over eight years, The Crimes of Hector Tomás was completed in 2010 with the help of two Canada Council grants and residencies at the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers and Yaddo, the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. Evidence, his first collection of short fiction, was published in 2008 by Porcupine’s Quill.

Ian Colford's profile page

• Winner, Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year
• 01 General/trade

"The Crimes of Hector Tomás is a powerful examination of the lengths people will go to survive under a repressive regime."

"Using precise and engaging language, the book examines the implications of physical and psychological subjugation in the lives of several characters… an admirable demonstration of authorial restraint. The prose is detailed, yet spare and subtle — allowing graphic and frequently disturbing events to imprint upon each reader based upon his or her own scruples and worldview."