Cape Breton author receives awards
SYDNEY – A Cape Bretonbased writer is basking in the glow of receiving several international honours for his latest work.
Michael Gerhartz’s thriller “Dark Times” has received a 2019 Readers’ Favourite Honourable Mention for Best Fiction Thriller, a 2019 International Independent Press Distinguished Favourite Award Best Thriller and a 2019 Honourable Mention for the Best Thriller at the International San Francisco Book Festival.
“It is nice to see that other people like the book,” said Gerhartz, 45, in an email interview. “Once you have really well known and famous authors coming up and talking to you, it does feel special. The book has been praised as a well written, but very realistic thriller.”
Born in Germany, Gerhartz came to Canada in 1999 and now lives near Dundee with his wife and two dogs. A scuba diver and former police officer, he works as an outdoor tour guide in the Rockies when he’s not writing.
“Dark Times” is his second book. The first, “Thin Ice,” is the beginning of a series that features Natascha, a young marine biologist who also works as a secretary for an elite security firm. When she joins a scientific expedition, she finds a flooded mine underneath an abbey which leads to a secret that the abbey’s clerics don’t want unravelled.
In a previous interview, Gerhartz says he feels realism is important and he tries to write his books with that in mind.
Gerhartz plans to write a third book in the series when he feels ready to do so.