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For fans of Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries.

It’s midsummer in British Columbia, and it’s murderously hot.

For Karl Alberg, that becomes more than a metaphor when he discovers a body on the beach, fresh from a fatal plunge into the icy waves. Back home in the town of Sechelt, chief of police Alberg almost begins to yearn for his days as a big-city cop when summer heat brings out the small-town crazies — such as a volatile petting zoo owner who is irate after recent vandalism.

Meanwhile, Alberg’s personal life also threatens to boil over. Not only is his daughter visiting, but his ex-wife is getting married again. Weaving together strands of Alberg’s personal life, the oppressiveness of a Pacific Northwest summer heatwave, and the latent danger lingering around small-town life, J.R. Wright yet again delivers an atmospheric mystery in the Murder In A Small Town series’ fourth novel.

“Alberg continues to be a most appealing protagonist — akin to P.D. James' Dalgliesh and Ruth Rendell's Wexford, but with a quintessentially Canadian voice.”—Publishers Weekly

L.R. Wright's profile page

L.R. Wright (Bunny" to her family and friends) was best known for her celebrated mystery series set in a little town on Western Canada's Sunshine Coast, featuring Karl Alberg of the Canadian police. In 1986 the first book in the series, The Suspect, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year, making Wright the first Canadian to be so honored. Two other books in the series - A Chill Rain in January and Mother Love - won Arthur Ellis Awards (now the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence). Wright died in 2001, and in 2024 the Alberg series was adapted for television as Murder In a Small Town ."

“Alberg continues to be a most appealing protagonist—akin to P.D. James' Dalgliesh and Ruth Rendell's Wexford, but with a quintessentially Canadian voice” —Publishers Weekly

“Forceful prose, unique characters, evocative imagery...quality material from a talented writer” —Library Journal

“Canada's Queen of Crime Fiction” —Chatelaine