Better the Devil You Know

Better the Devil You Know, set in Vancouver in 1907, centres on the picaresque adventures of a small-time con man who passes himself off as an evangelical preacher, the scrawny hooker whom he reluctantly befriends, and the five-year-old hellion left in his care by a former lady friend. In the course of their adventures, these three misfits become involved with a larcenous lingerie salesman, a Klondike miner bent on recovering his stolen poke, a madam intent on revenge for past wrongs, a pugilistic lady barkeep, two doctors determined to acquire a cadaver of their own, a handful of incompetent/ corrupt cops, and a piano teacher with reforming zeal. The pace is riotous, the action continuous, and nobody -- good or bad -- ever gets a break.

Betty Keller was born in Vancouver, BC, and moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1980. She is a teacher, mentor, editor and a writer, and has authored or co-authored eighteen books, including biographies, histories, plays and novels. She is a founder of the Sunshine Coast's Festival of the Written Arts and the Writers in Residence Program. Betty has won numerous awards for her literary work. She is an avid potter, gardener and fisherperson. Her most recent publication is a reprint of her 2001 novel, Better the Devil You Know (Caitlin). Caitlin Press also published, in 2010, her book, A Thoroughly Wicked Woman: Murder, Perjury & Trial by Newspaper.