From MUSKEG to MURDER begins by chronicling the epic struggles and enormous challenges of the author's ancestors as they struggled to scrounge a living under the oppressive regime of the Tzar in 19th Century Ukraine. They finally fled their desperate situation, eventually settling in the free and serene environs of Canada.
As a boy in rural British Columbia in the mid 20th Century, Andrew Maksymchuk is enthralled by the stories of his immigrant family's escape from oppression, and he dreams of fighting injustice. That dream becomes reality when, at 21, he is initiated into the Ontario Provincial Police Force.
Sent to serve in remote Northwestern Ontario, he learns his craft in its mining centres, pulp and paper industry communities, Indian reservations, native settlements and boom towns. From MUSKEG to MURDER follows "Maks" as he tracks criminals on foot across frozen muskeg, by canoe and speedboat along breathtaking waterways, by rail along the CNR's ribbons of steel, and by airplane above the vastness of the Canadian Shield.
In makeshift courtrooms, primitive cabins and isolated outposts, he overcomes limited training, deficient supervision, poor transportation and communication resources and the clash of cultures with ingenuity, dedication and humour.
The author's willingness to share the most painful and intimate aspects of his life in a candid and unvarnished fashion serves to forge a solid bond with the reader. Family, friends, community and duty become entwined against a backdrop of a changing Canada as Maks shares his experiences and insights into the unique place of the OPP in Canadian police service.