Book Release: In the Shadows of Service by Cynthia Hamilton Urquhart

Some books announce themselves loudly. Others arrive quietly, carrying with them the weight of what has been lived but not always spoken. In the Shadows of Service, the debut poetry collection by Cynthia Hamilton Urquhart, belongs firmly to the latter.

Written from decades of service within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, these poems move through the afterimages of a life spent answering calls most people never hear. Urquhart writes from inside the uniform and beyond it, tracing the moments that linger long after the sirens fade: fractured families, sudden violence, unbearable losses, and the quieter, more private reckonings that follow. What emerges is not spectacle, but witness.

The poems themselves shift shape on the page, short lines, open spaces, fractured typography, mirroring the instability of memory and the disjointed rhythms of trauma. Silence is not an absence here, but a presence. Stillness and motion coexist. In one breath, the reader is immersed in chaos; in the next, drawn toward a fragile hope for return, “where a kind smile greets you from a stranger… where sunlight settles gently on my cheeks.”

As Dante Di Stefano writes, this collection is “an anthem for what’s left unfinished in the line of duty,” offering a rare and necessary perspective on PTSD from within law enforcement itself. Yet the reach of the book extends well beyond police work. Peter Campion notes the poems’ emotional precision and their ability to establish connection between self and other in the most challenging circumstances. These are poems that ask us not to look away.

Urquhart’s formal daring is matched by ethical clarity. Henry Sussman describes In the Shadows of Service as a “stunning literary debriefing,” praising its radical typography and musical intensity, its ability to make interior voices sing in unanticipated ways. Kristina Marie Darling places the work in conversation with tradition and innovation alike, noting echoes of Dickinson alongside a fearless commitment to new forms. Narrative, in these poems, becomes a vehicle for transformation.

What gives In the Shadows of Service its deep resonance is the honesty at its core. Urquhart’s perspective is shaped not only by 25 years on the front lines, but by her own journey through PTSD, shared with her husband, also a First Responder. The poems are rooted in lived experience, calls answered, moments carried, and truths that remain long after the work is done. Naming becomes an act of care. Language becomes a form of light.

In the Shadows of Service is a necessary book, one that broadens our understanding of both poetry and public service. It honors sacrifice without romanticizing it, confronts trauma without surrendering to it, and reminds us that survival itself can be an act of courage.

We are proud to release In the Shadows of Service with BlazeVOX [books].

Book Information
Paperback, 70 pages
Perfect-bound
ISBN: 978-1-60964-532-8
$18

Cynthia Hamilton Urquhart lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she continues to serve her community through writing, advocacy, and speaking. More about her work can be found at afirstrespondervoice.com or on Instagram @afirstrespondervoice.

Buy In the Shadows of Service by Cynthia Hamilton Urquhart here
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