This note is for any reader who stumbled across this story and isn't already a fan of Due South, but wants to know the basics before diving into Northern Lights. If you're already part of this cozy, hilarious fandom, skip to the Prologue.
Due South is a Canadian buddy-cop dramedy that ran from 1994 to 1999 about Constable Benton Fraser, an impossibly upright, socially naïve Mountie from northern Canada. When his estranged father is murdered, Fraser travels to Chicago with his loyal half-wolf Diefenbaker, where he teams up with street-smart, morally flexible Chicago police detective Ray Vecchio to solve the case.
After catching the killers, with no family remaining in Canada, Fraser stays in Chicago to work at the Canadian consulate while fighting crime on the side with his new best friend, Detective Vecchio.
Other canon characters appearing in Northern Lights include:
Inspector Margaret Thatcher: Fraser's strict and icy boss, who tolerates no shenanigans. Thatcher initially tries to get Fraser fired, but over time she becomes his ally and sometimes love interest.
Francesca Vecchio: Ray Vecchio's younger sister. She's sweet, clueless, and has no boundaries. During the early seasons, she shamelessly flirts with Fraser, who does not reciprocate.
Detective Ray Kowalski: Fraser's partner during the show's last two seasons after Ray Vecchio, for TV-related reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, leaves Chicago. An agent of chaos.
Robert "The Ghost" Fraser: The curmudgeonly ghost of Benton Fraser's father, who is both a source of irritation and a sounding board for his son throughout the series.
If you enjoy Northern Lights, I encourage you to check out Due South. The full show is on YouTube. Make sure you watch the pilot movie. But Northern Lights is a new, self-contained story, so you don't need to watch four seasons of television to read it.
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Northern Lights: A Due South Novel
FanfictionConstable Elizabeth Fraser thought she'd spend her whole career policing the Canadian north. As a third generation Mountie, she knows how to track suspects through wilderness, handle a dog sled team, and press a scarlet tunic in a log cabin, but onl...
