Tar Sands Diplomat is a satirical thriller set at the Canadian diplomatic mission in Brussels. After a Russian prostitute dramatically murders the Canadian mission's star diplomat with an Inuit statue, Macgregor is plunged into a world of spooks, Big Oil, Russian oligarchs and eco-hacktivists that leads him back to a well-connected Canadian oil company and the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa. Author Keith Halliday was formerly the twelfth most senior diplomat at the Canadian Mission to the European Union in Brussels. After rocketing to the rank of Second Secretary, he retired from the Foreign Service. He started Tar Sands Diplomat while on a chemotherapy-induced vacation from his day job.