Leaves are turning red in cottage country, and Charley Scott is putting on an immersive Halloween pulp art installation based on a local lake monster legend. But life imitates art when Laura, a mercenary newcomer with a controversial agenda for the dam, claims she was attacked by a lake monster she accuses Charley of raising.

Hours later, Laura is found dead by dry drowning.

Accident, murder, or a lethal encounter with a mythical beast? Tension mounts as snaking tracks, an animal carcass, and a witch’s ladder are found near the lake, but could there truly be supernatural forces at work?

Charley teams up with chocolatier Matt Thorn to investigate, but it’ll take more than seafoam toffee to bait this trap. To find the truth, Charley will have to risk it all to look the monster in the eye.

As an avid reader and writer of crime fiction, Vanessa Westermann’s ideal day would be spent plotting fictitious crimes. Vanessa is a former Arthur Ellis Awards judge, and has given a talk on the evolution of women’s crime writing, at the Toronto Chapter of Sisters in Crime.Vanessa’s book review column entitled “Vanessa’s Picks” was published in the monthly newsletter of a popular Toronto mystery-specialty bookstore from 2012 to 2016. The column was developed into a blog, featuring literary reviews and author interviews.While living in Germany, she attained an M.A. in English Literature and went on to teach creative writing.She currently lives in Canada and is working on her next novel, while drinking copious amounts of tea. Readers can find her blog at www.vanessa-westermann.info or follow her on Twitter @VanessasPicks.

Vanessa Westermann's profile page

“An utterly Canadian murder mystery packed with vivid characters, autumn atmosphere, local lore, and captivating prose. I loved being transported to ‘lakeland’ with clever Charley and her crew. Serpentine and sophisticated, Shudder Pulp delivers on every level and will hook fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny alike.”

Tessa Wegert, author of Death in the Family

“In the second outing of the Charley Scott mystery series, Westermann displays a deftness for peeling back the layers of small-town Canadian intrigue that's on par with Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series. The body drops early on, a curmudgeonly character no one is particularly sorry to see dead. But when the death is revealed to be a case of dry land drowning, a decades-old lake monster hoax suddenly takes on a dangerous life of its own. Throughout, Westermann pulls off an ambitious juggling act, highlighting the beauty and mystery of the vast Canadian landscape while also evoking the claustrophobia of living in a tiny dot of a civilization with unknown, nefarious forces lurking in your midst. The quality of Westermann's writing sets her books apart from most contemporary mysteries — each sentence is a joy to read.”

Mindy Quigley, author of the Deep Dish Mysteries