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It's sunny days for Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg, even as everyone else in Canada is shivering.

The magnificent Cassandra Mitchell, who has a disconcerting habit of disappearing from both the town of Sechelt and Alberg's bed, has appeared once again. And though Alberg is effectively the police chief, the most pressing thing on his desk right now is the spunky old lady who has apparently absconded from her retirement home—most likely, it's widely believed, in search of a good martini.

But a storm is brewing for Alberg, just a few miles down the peninsula. Zoe Strachan was an angry child, and she's grown into an angry, if eerily seductive, woman. Over the years, she has built up elaborate structures to contain her anger, but now those structures have been shattered. A refugee from big-city policing, Alberg thinks he's seen it all, but he's not even going to know what hit him.

Winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for best novel

L.R. Wright's profile page

• Winner, Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence (Best Novel)

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 ."

“Packed full of vivid characterizations, absorbing scenes, and impeccable writing....Wright has been aptly compared to Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, but it's been a while since either of them has written anything this good” —Philadelphia Inquirer

“The real stuff...superb...the atmosphere of the Sunshine Coast is as much a character as the people themselves” —Vancouver Sun

“A truly splendid book—compassionate, humorous, erotic and suspenseful....Adding riches to riches, Wright writes with style and grace, and is masterful at creating a terrific sense of dread.” —bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman

“Chilling...both scary and fascinating” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Rich in humorous and poignant aspects as well as fierce suspense” —Publishers Weekly

“Finely crafted prose supports the narrowly focused plot, wonderful characters, and gorgeous descriptions” —Library Journal