When Alfred Nobel combined nitroglycerin and mercury fulminate to create dynamite, he probably never imagined the uses his invention would be put to in places like Refuge Cove, a boater’s way–station on British Columbia’s Inside Passage. Dynamite was part of the Refuge Cove scene long before Doris and Norman Hope opened their general store there in 1945. And where there is dynamite, there’s stories about dynamite and its many and disparate uses — and users. Dynamite Stories perfectly evokes mid–coast life in a yarn featuring crusty characters, menacing bears, marauding cougars, and of course, lots of things blowing up — not always with the intended consequences. Dynamite Stories is Number 11 in the Transmontanus series edited by Terry Glavin.