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 A Killer Whisky - coming in December 2024

Book 12, Canadian Historical Mysteries - Alberta

The 1918 influenza pandemic strikes Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Great War rages overseas. While her husband fights in Europe, Katharine works in a doctor’s office to support her children and her brother, a wounded veteran. One night their neighbour suddenly takes sick and dies. The attending doctor concludes the man died from influenza, but Katharine suspects someone laced his whisky with a drug that mimics the deadly flu’s symptoms. 

Katharine convinces the police to investigate. Worried about her brother’s involvement with a suspect, she delves into his secrets and comes to fear he’s connected to the murder. She grows disturbingly attracted to the investigating detective who returns her affections. He’s convinced her brother or someone else close to her is a killer and risks his career to pursue the crime. Katharine must discover the truth so she can move forward in a world that has changed forever.

Click here to purchase Spring Into Danger

In spring 2020, the pandemic shuts down Calgary. Paula Savard’s insurance adjusting firm struggles to survive. Shaken by her last encounter with murder, Paula vows to stay away from all suspicious death cases. 

After thieves break into a store and steal two bicycles, a psychic phones Detective Mike Vincelli and urges him to bring Paula onto the case to save someone’s life. Mike offers Paula an opportunity—the new burglary claim.

Paula scoffs at the psychic’s prediction. She investigates the burglary, and slowly becomes aware of the psychic’s hidden motive for wanting her involved. Evidence leads Paula to suspect the store is a front for illegal activities. She worries a child is at risk. A murder draws Paula in deeper. To save an innocent life, Paula abandons her plan to stay safe and she leaps into danger.

Click here to purchase Winter's Rage

 A hit-and-run driver kills a pedestrian one cold winter’s night in Calgary, Alberta. The car’s owner insists he wasn’t driving. Insurance investigator Paula Savard sympathizes with the elderly man until she discovers his disturbing history and connection to the victim.  

Paula unearths family secrets that go back thirty years. The elderly man blames the dead woman for tearing his family apart. But others had access to his car and reasons to wish the victim dead. Paula becomes convinced the hit and run was murder, but who was driving?

A startling confession leads the police to make an arrest. Paula fears they will convict an innocent person. She digs deeper, unaware she’s on a collision course with a desperate killer consumed with vengeance and rage.

Click here to purchase Ten Days in Summer 

Calgary, Alberta, gears up for its ten-day Stampede festival. When a hoarder dies in a suspicious house fire, adjuster Paula Savard sets the revelry aside to handle the property insurance claim. But Paula’s interviews with the hoarder’s bickering heirs raise questions. What are they hiding from each other and the police? Are they trying to help or to sabotage the investigation? Did one of them set the blaze to kill a relative and hasten an inheritance?

The case turns personal when Paula’s daughter becomes involved with a suspect and moves into his home. If Paula learns the truth, she can ensure her daughter’s safety. While the police are occupied with keeping order during the Stampede, Paula digs through the hoarder’s life. She unearths betrayal, murder and a long-ago secret that led to his death. Exposing the truth would put Paula at risk, but free a troubled family.

Editorial Reviews
“A pointedly nuanced debut novel, ...sparkles with tone and energy that set the pace, a concise storyline, and edgy dialogue that moves the story forward…a debut worth reading and a possible series with insurance claims providing a minefield of potential stories.” -- Don Graves, Hamilton Spectator

“Paula is an intelligent, determined, often critical (though in a good way) yet still compassionate sleuth, who is front and center in this mystery debut. She's a solidly developed character, one readers will want to get to know better, with an interesting supporting cast, which should serve her well in subsequent books. With possibly a new profession in hand, and her first case behind her, readers will look forward to seeing how she fares.” -- Mysterious Reviews

Click here to purchase A Deadly Fall

Paula Savard’s life takes a dangerous turn when her childhood friend is murdered on Calgary’s Elbow River pathway. Evidence suggests her friend was coming to Paula for help with a desperate problem. The murder brings Paula into a world of entrepreneurs and politicians used to getting what they want. All of them want something from Paula. Do they fear her friend told her too much? The more Paula learns, the fewer people she can trust. She won’t be safe until the murder is solved. When the police abandon the case, Paula must pursue it alone, before the killer strikes again to bury the last secret.

 Reviews

“A  Deadly Fall sparkles with tone and energy that set the pace, a concise storyline, and edgy dialogue that moves the story forward…a debut worth reading and a possible series with insurance claims providing a minefield of potential stories.”  -- Don Graves, Hamilton Spectator                                                                  

 “Paula is an intelligent, determined, often critical (though in a good way) yet still compassionate sleuth, who is front and center in this mystery debut. She's a solidly developed character, one readers will want to get to know better, with an interesting supporting cast, which should serve her well in subsequent books. With possibly a new profession in hand, and her first case behind her, readers will look forward to seeing how she fares.”  -- Mysterious Reviews

Click here to purchase To Catch a Fox

Julie Fox is on the run. A psychotic breakdown has shattered her career in Calgary, her marriage and her love for her child. Julie travels to California to search for her mother and learn the root of her problems.

Clues at a cult-like retreat appear to hold the answers. As the retreat leaders lure Julie into their twisted game, her ex-husband tries to wrest her from their control. Trapped in a tangle of lies, Julie’s grip on reality falters.

Who will catch Julie Fox? Or will she break free, confront the truth about her past and set out on a new journey?