Danson Lafleur’s been on a crusade to investigate deported criminals who return undetected to Canada, and now he’s missing. Can he be the unidentified man in the morgue? Danson’s desperate sister pleads with artist and amateur sleuth Hollis Grant to search for her brother, since the police don’t appear to be taking his disappearance seriously. Leads seem to connect Danson and Gregory, his mystery flat-mate, to drugs. But who is Gregory, and what is his connection to the Russian mob? As Hollis investigates, she clashes with homicide detective Rhona Simpson, a woman annoyed by amateur sleuths in general and Hollis Grant in particular. Rhona, adjusting to a new, attractive, enigmatic partner, wants Hollis off the case. Toronto in November is as cold as Danson’s trail. Will Hollis connect the dots before the body count rises?

Joan Boswell was born in Toronto and grew up in Ottawa, Edmonton, Oakville and Halifax. She received her BA from the University of New Brunswick, married and moved to the Northern Quebec bush. After two years she and her husband relocated to London, Ontario, where she attended Teachers’ College and taught on the Six Nations Oneida Indian Reserve. Moving to Ottawa, she obtained an MA in Canadian Studies from Carleton University and a PhD from the University of Ottawa. Her thesis grew out of her experience with and interest in the Six Nations. During her many years in academia she won several prizes as well as a Ford Foundation Fellowship, and Canada Council grants. These enabled her to continue her studies and pay for sitters to care for her four sons who grew up hating the sound of the typewriter. Throughout her life, she has painted and eventually the compulsion to improve and spend more time being creative overwhelmed her and she returned to the University of Ottawa to complete the course work for a BFA. After ten solo shows and four posters produced by Posters International, she again switched her focus. This time writing was the attraction. She attended the Humber School of Writing and took a Humber College Correspondence Course with Isabel Huggin. As a writer, Joan has had work published in magazines and anthologies in Canada and the United States. As a member of the Ladies’ Killing Circle, she has had stories in each of their six books: The Ladies’ Killing Circle, Cottage Country Killers, Menopause Is Murder, Fit to Die, Bone Dance and When Boomers Go Bad. She has also co-edited the last three books. In 2000, she won the $10,000 Toronto Sunday Star short story contest. Cut Off His Tale was her first novel. The second in the Hollis Grant series, Cut to the Quick, followed in 2007, and the third, Cut to the Chase, in 2009.

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