From the award-winning and #1 bestselling author of Sufferance and Indians on Vacation

Can a reality TV show solve a cold case?

When a TV producer asks Thumps to assist with an episode about a local woman from a wealthy family whose death was ruled “misadventure,” he is reluctant to get involved. Then the producer dies in the exact same manner, and Thumps finds himself solving two cases.

The crew of Malice Aforethought, a true-crime reality-TV show, shows up in Chinook to do an episode about the death of Trudy Samuels. Trudy’s death had originally been ruled accidental, but with ratings in mind, one of the producers, Nina Maslow, wants to prove it was murder?and she wants Thumps to help. Thumps is reluctant to get involved. But then Nina dies in the exact same place and in the exact same way as Trudy. Are the two deaths related? Or are there two murderers on the loose in Chinook? Thumps uses Nina’s Malice Aforethought files to try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, and in the process discovers that the producer had already started work on another case that is close to Thumps’s heart: the Obsidian murders.

Thomas King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent, is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter, and photographer. His first novel, Medicine River, won several awards, including the PEN/Josephine Miles Award and the Writers Guild of Alberta Award, and was shortlisted for the 1991 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It was also made into a CBC television movie. Green Grass, Running Water, his second novel, was shortlisted for the 1993 Governor General's Award and won the 1994 Canadian Authors Award for fiction. His highly praised short story collection, One Good Story, That One, was a Canadian bestseller, and his collection of Massey Lectures, The Truth About Stories, won the 2003 Trillium Book Award. He has also written three acclaimed children's books: A Coyote Columbus Story, Coyote Sings to the Moon, and Coyote's New Suit. Thomas King lives in Guelph, Ontario, and is an Associate Professor of English (teaching Native literature and creative writing) at the University of Guelph.

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• Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year
• Bony Blithe Bloody Words Light Mystery Award

“Even armchair sleuths who can see the solution from a mile away will appreciate GoodWeather’s unerring knack for converting social, racial, and economic conflict into blissful farce.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The characters are really clever. . . . The dialogue is crisp and just begs to head to the screen.” — The Globe and Mail

“Let’s hope that DreadfulWater shows up again and again.” — Books in Canada

“”The writing is feisty and fast . . . King is having fun here . . . Mark Twain was of the opinion that the truth was the funniest joke in the world. All good satire springs from that notion, and this book qualifies as such.” — The Globe and Mail

“Wry wit, clever writing, amusing characters. . . . [Readers] are going to love sharing this adventure with Thumps DreadfulWater.” — Tony Hillerman

“Whimsical and wry, large-hearted and at times laugh out loud funny, but with an underlying gravitas and significance.” — Quill & Quire