Git your motor running
April 16th, 2015
R.E. (Ruth) Donald is the best novelist in Lone Butte, B.C.
As a former RCMP homicide investigator, Ruth Donald’s protagonist Hunter Rayne travels far afield, driving a rig for a B.C.-based company, often aided by a sidekick she describes as “a garrulous biker with problems in impulse control.” Rayne’s boss and dispatcher, Elspeth Watson, is a no-nonsense gal who has earned her nickname Big Mother Trucker. Each novel is named for the locale of the highway on which the hero travels. For instance, much of her second novel, Ice on the Grapevine, is set in and around Los Angeles; her fourth release, Sundown on Top of the World, is set in the Yukon and Alaska.
R.E. (Ruth) Donald was born in Winnipeg in 1950 (during what used to be called the great flood). Her family moved to BC in 1958 and she grew up in West Vancouver where she attended Hillside Secondary School (her last name at the time was Hunter), then she studied languages (Russian, French, German) and Creative Writing at UBC in the ‘70s (when her last name was Biga), and International Marketing at BCIT in the ‘80s (when her last name was Hastings). She worked in the transportation industry in various capacities from 1972 until 2001, for both air freight and trucking companies. She handled Accounts Payable at Pharmasave Pacific regional office from 2001-2008, and was the Recreation Coordinator for the Horse Council of BC from 2009-2012.
“I was introduced to mystery fiction through my Uncle John’s bookshelves at the family cabin on Shuswap Lake,” she has written, “everything from Agatha Christie to Dick Francis to John D. MacDonald. I started writing a novel when I was twelve, then wrote numerous business and horse-related articles over the years, but didn’t get serious about writing fiction until 1994. At that time, I was very active on the Compuserve Mystery Forum, attended Surrey Writers’ Conferences and Bouchercons, joined Crime Writers of Canada (we used to meet at Bunny Wright’s house) and Sisters in Crime.
Her late husband, Jim Donald, worked closely with the RCMP in his early years. Her first two novels went unpublished until the summer of 2011 when she created Proud Horse Publishing and released digital editions of Slow Curve on the Coquihalla and Ice on the Grapevine. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada her Proud Horse imprint is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association.
“North America is full of highways,” she says “and I’ve got plenty of ideas for future novels in the series.”
R.E. Donald currently lives on a ranch in the South Cariboo region of B.C., where she and her partner, Gilbert Roy, enjoy their Canadian Horses (Le Cheval Canadien), Canada’s own heritage breed, and other animals.
BOOKS:
Slow Curve on the Coquihalla – 978-0-9881118-0-6
Ice on the Grapevine – 978-0-9881118-1-3
Sea to Sky – 978-0-9881118-2-0
Sundown on Top of the World – 978-0-9881118-8-2
This is a great series. My husband and I look forward to reading more of Hunter Rayne and his cohorts in their adventures.