Nominated for the 2003 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel, and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. If you had the opportunity, could you kill someone to prevent murder on a far greater scale?

In this gripping new political thriller, former Ottawa civil servant Jonathon Platz casts his novelistic eye on the brutal government repressions that rocked South America in the 1970s. One man, Canadian Amnesty International worker Peter Quinfell, sees too much suffering and finally breaks under the strain. He becomes judge, jury and executioner for all those he believes have subverted the social contract between governor and governed.

Quinfell's actions lead to an international manhunt. But the unsuspecting key to the case is a burned-out RCMP officer with a troubled past. Unexpectedly, a missing file turns Harry Bruckner's world upside down and sets him on a quest to find the mysterious assassin.

The vividly portrayed horror of human rights violations provides a chilling backdrop to this tale of two individualists caught in a world of bureaucratic manipulation and its abstract relation to real human suffering. In their mutual search for justice, Quinfell and Bruckner enter a murky world of moral ambiguity that will leave the reader pondering the differences between right and wrong, good and evil.

Jonathon Platz's profile page

Jonathon Platz is a former Ottawa civil servant now living in Winnipeg. Due to the sensitive nature of some of the material featured in this novel, he has chosen to write under a nom de plume. Work of Idle Hands is his first novel.

"The author has done an admirable job in keeping the suspense levels high throughout the book. He has woven into the account a backdrop of political upheaval combined with intelligence activities, exotic locations and a surprise ending. Members of the [RCMP] Force who served in the Security Service should find this fictional account very interesting." - RCMP Quarterly

"With nods to John Le Carré, Work of Idle Hands is rich with colourful context, so much so you can almost smell the cigarette smoke and taste the blood." - Winnipeg Free Press

"The background material - political shenanigans, secret groups, clandestine meetings, CIA intervention, government approved assassination - is detailed and convincing. . . This political thriller has much to say about the moral ambiguities involved in the portrayal of good and evil." - Canadian Book Review Annual