Draft dodgers, flower children, murder
Fake Out: A Long Beach Mystery
by Faye Bayko
Victoria: Tellwell Publishing, 2025
$26.99 / 9781779624789
Reviewed by Valerie Green
*
Faye Bayko’s debut novel Fake Out plunges her readers into the world of hippies, drugs, and a place where young people are deeply committed to the slogan “Make love, not war.”
She sets her story in May of 1968 on Vancouver Island’s west coast near Tofino, Ucluelet, and the old original Wickaninnish Inn. This is where the runaways, the hippies, and American draft dodgers once gathered to live a beach-style existence free from the worries of the world—or so they thought.
Having described the history of the area and the Inn, the author introduces her protagonist, Sandy Chambers, a 20-year-old who has dropped out of university in Victoria to escape a fate dreamed up by her convention-minded parents. Instead, Sandy wants to experience the freedom she imagines the Long Beach lifestyle will offer as she enjoys art-making—her passion. Like many other young people in the sixties, she’s eager to experience life with a capital L.
After she hitches a ride from Port Alberni with a Californian hippie named Geoff, she immediately feels attracted to him. As they journey along the rough road in his camper, he tells her stories of surfing; she’s fascinated. Sandy decides that afternoon to give him the gift of her virginity in his camper. She is disappointed when he appears to ignore her at a beach party later that night.
Sandy soon realizes that this pattern is typical of the hippies who camp along Long Beach. They all use their first names only and making love is easy and free for the taking. That’s what she came to experience, even though she might not be comfortable with it. Drugs such as marijuana are commonplace but there is also an undercurrent of something far darker. It involves old mining claims, family feuds, and the possible shipment of heavy drugs being imported into the area from Vancouver.
The Port Alberni author’s descriptive prose of the scenery and ambience of this lifestyle is excellent. You can feel the heat of summer and almost smell the smoke of drugs: “The thunder of the pounding surf . . . the expanse of sky and ocean . . .the beauty was expected, the uncontrolled wilderness…”
I soon found that the multitude of new characters introduced made the story somewhat complicated and required frequent backtracking. We soon meet Tom, James, Mark, Trish and Conny, who either camp at the beach or stay in the Lodge if they work at the Inn. But then the story becomes more interesting with the introduction of RCMP Corporal David Moore and Constable Halden Evans. They’re there because Sandy discovers the body of Geoff alongside the road the next day in what is first thought to be a hit-and-run.
The discovery was entirely unexpected. Since “dropping out” wasn’t the tonic she’d imagined, Sandy planned to hitch back to Port Alberni. A thick fog had come up and she felt lost as she stumbled along the road, and tripped over Geoff’s body lying half in a ditch. The experience was horrifying, and she’s in despair as to what she has got herself involved in. She is finally found, and the police are called.
When RCMP officers begin to investigate, it soon becomes clear that this might have been a murder. Sandy’s own guilt and her innate curiosity leads to sleuthing; she resolves to stay at Long Beach. Temporarily offered a space to crash at the Lodge with the other workers, she’s later offered a job as a chambermaid. She takes the job and the chance to stay for the rest of the summer.
David Moore is an officer from the Ucluelet division who has never dealt with a murder case, especially one that could involve big time crime from Vancouver. When a second murder is discovered, he is open to any help he can get as he retraces Geoff’s last steps and a possible connection to the second murder. Sandy was the one who arrived with Geoff and became close to him in a short period of time, so he begins his interviews with her. He shows her kindness and becomes a mentor of sorts. He is frustrated when the Major Crimes Unit becomes involved, and two more specialist officers from Victoria arrive and take over the investigation, leaving him as a mere outside assistant.
I sometimes found the dialogue between the many characters a little stilted and all the technical information, although sometimes necessary, slowed the story down on occasion. However, I liked all Bayko’s characters and how she developed them as the mystery progressed. Each of her characters has an interesting backstory to investigate.
The build up to a tense and exciting ending was palpable. The final scene did leave this reader disappointed, however. It seemed that all the many loose ends had not been fully explained and resolved. I wondered if this was because the author plans additional books for the Long Beach series. Quibbles aside, Bayko has certainly created a worthy mystery with a captivating setting. I look forward to her next mystery.
*
Valerie Green was born and educated in England, where she studied journalism and law. Her passion was always for writing from the moment she first held a pen. After working at the world-famous Foyles Books in London (followed by a brief stint with MI5 and legal firms), she moved to Canada in 1968 and embarked on a long career as a freelance writer, columnist, and author of over twenty nonfiction historical and true-crime books. In 2024, Hancock House released Tomorrow, the final volume of The McBride Chronicles (after Providence, Destiny, and Legacy). Now semi-retired (although writers never really retire!) Green enjoys taking short road trips around BC with her husband, watching their two beloved grandsons grow up and, of course, writing. [Editor’s note: Valerie Green has recently reviewed books by Joanne Thomson, Joan Steacy, R.W. Butler, John D’Eathe, M.A.C Farrant, Olga Campbell, and Beka Shane Denter for BCR.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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