Gunshots shatter the stillness of a rainy night in an upscale neighbourhood in St. John's, Newfoundland. Harrison Rose, a businessman and war veteran, lies dead. To find the killer, Inspector Eric Stride confronts the darker side of post-World War II St. John's: a lady of the evening who appears on his doorstep, a hard-scrabble labourer who shovels coal for a living, a prosperous businessman with a secret. Along the way, Stride confronts treachery and betrayal. He also encounters opposition from inside government, when officials attempt to stymie his investigation. As Stride unravels the mystery, he also confronts his own sense of justice in a world where violence has become a way of life.

Thomas Rendell Curran was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1939.

He was educated at Holloway School, Prince of Wales College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Toronto. For more than twenty years he was a senior researcher and writer with the Parliamentary Research Branch in Ottawa. Undertow, his first novel, is set in St. John’s, partly in the neighbourhood where he grew up. He currently lives in Ottawa.

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In Death of a Lesser Man, Curran has assembled most of the key ingredients of an excellent mystery. The setting is unique, the main character is interesting, the secondary characters are well drawn and the whodunit aspects are well-handled. The historical detail is abundant, especially in regard to Newfoundlanders' role in the First World War. --Ottawa Citizen