In the sequel to Cut Off his Tale, Hollis Grant is back, but this time shes in Toronto, hoping for a quiet summer of study. Hollis is a painter, and she hopes to spend some time taking a course in painting at the College of Art from her best friends husband, Curt Hartman. But the murder of her friends secretive stepson puts paid to those plans as the friend teeters on the edge of hysteria. She needs support and begs Hollis to move in with the family. Hollis discovers that all is not as it seems. Was the stepson the real target or is it his brother or his father, famous artist, and Holliss instructor, Curt Hartman? It appears that both father and son have led clandestine lives. Would someone kill them because of their secrets? Hollis poses those questions to Rhona Simpson, the Toronto homicide detective whom Hollis last encountered in Ottawa. It soon becomes clear to both women that the crime is the work of a cold-blooded murderer who intends to strike again. Terror mounts at the Hartmans. Arson, a bomb, a sabotaged sailboatthe killer is closing in. Who will be the next victim? Hollis and Rhona race along parallel tracks to solve the case.

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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