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The Hemingway Caper: A Joe Barley Mystery
by Eric WrightJoe Barley, full-time English professor and part-time private detective, is given a simple case: to track Jason Tyler and find proof of his adultery. But as he’s investigating, Barley stumbles across the story of a missing manuscript containing writings by a young Ernest Hemingway. What is Tyler’s connection to the Hemingway papers? And why does Tyler’s wife insist that Barley stay on the case, long after he’s come up with the required evidence of Tyler’s infidelity? While these questions hang over Barley, his own life is complicated by academic politics, and challenges to his monogamous relationship with his longtime partner, Carole. Set in Toronto, The Hemingway Caper is the second book in the Joe Barley series. The first, The Kidnapping of Rosie Dawn, won the prestigious Barry Award.
The Last Hand: A Charlie Salter Mystery
by Eric WrightCharlie Slater is sixty - the age limit for active police work. Lately, he’s been a glorified receptionist for the deputy chief. But then a Toronto lawyer is murdered, and the prime suspect is a prostitute in a pair of silver boots.The case doesn’t ignite any interest until high-powered lawyer Calvin Gregson shows up, supposedly on Flora’s behalf, insisting the police solve the case quietly. Deputy Mackenzie figures the assignment will keep Salter temporarily occupied, and puts him on the case with a young Scotsman new to the force and city.Salter is thrilled. As he searches, he meets the law profession’s elite and, among others, the victim’s sister, MPP Flora Lucas. But it’s the lawyer’s book group that brings Salter the clues he needs to solve the case - and to discover why Gregson is so eager to wrap the case up quickly and quietly.
Lucy Trimble Mysteries 2-Book Bundle: Death of a Sunday Writer / Death on the Rocks
by Eric WrightPresenting the first two novels of the Lucy Trimble series by award-winning author Eric Wright, in a definitive ebook bundle. Lucy Trimble is a former bed and breakfast proprietor from rural Ontario turned private investigator in Toronto, where she discovers an exciting but dangerous new life. … there is plenty of wry humour here, and an intriguing storyline supported by interesting secondary characters, lots of local colour, and many promising subplots.– Quill and Quire Includes Death of a Sunday Writer Death on the Rocks
The Granite Moth: A Novel
by Erica Wright"This new PI has got a smart mouth on her, and plenty of wigs to help her find her own true character."--The New York Times Book Review (on The Red Chameleon) "This new PI has got a smart mouth on her, and plenty of wigs to help her find her own true character."--The New York Times Book Review (on The Red Chameleon) It begins with a bang: Kathleen Stone is watching her friend Dolly and his fellow drag queens from The Pink Parrot perform at the Halloween Parade when their float explodes. Suspecting foul play, The Pink Parrot's owner, Big Mamma, hires Kat to find the culprit. Meanwhile, Kat has not given up on her quest to bring gangster Salvatore Magrelli to justice and once more dons a disguise to infiltrate The Skyview, an exclusive club run by his wife, Eva. When she watches the club's poker dealer drop dead during a high-stakes game, she decides to look into his death as well. Upon discovering that he was also gay, she suspects that this murder could be a hate crime connected to the parade explosion. However, as Kat digs deeper, she realizes that the truth is much more complicated and the real villains are much more difficult to spot.
The Red Chameleon: A Novel
by Erica WrightKathleen Stone's ability to blend in makes her an ace private investigator, but when a cheating spouse she is tailing ends up dead she fears that someone from her past has seen through her disguises. As a private investigator, Kathleen Stone relies on her ability to blend into the background. Aided by her street-smart drag queen friend and the best wigmaker in New York City, she feels confident that her camouflage is up to snuff. But when a cheating spouse she's been trailing ends up dead under suspicious circumstances, she fears that someone she angered in her past job--busting gangs and drug dealers as an undercover cop--has seen through her disguises. Now she must work with her former colleagues in the NYPD to solve the case before she's the next victim.
Red Dirt Talking
by Jacqueline WrightSet in the outback of Western Australia, this novel centers around the disappearance of Kuj, an eight-year-old girl, during a bitter custody battle. Annie, an anthropology graduate newly arrived from the city, is increasingly distracted from her work by the mysterious event. As Annie searches for the truth beneath the township’s wild speculations, she find herself increasingly drawn towards Mick Hooper, a muscly, laid-back Australian man with secrets of his own.
Duck Season Death
by June WrightJune Wright wrote this lost gem in the mid-1950s, but consigned it to her bottom drawer after her publisher foolishly rejected it. Perhaps it was a little ahead of its time? Because while it's a tour de force of the classic 'country house' murder mystery, it's also a delightful romp, poking fun at the conventions of the genre. When someone takes advantage of a duck hunt to murder publisher Athol Sefton at a remote hunting inn, it soon turns out that virtually everyone, guests and staff alike, had a good reason for shooting him. Sefton's nephew Charles thinks he can solve the crime by applying the "rules of the game" he's absorbed from his years as a reviewer of detective fiction - only the killer evidently isn't playing by those rules. Duck Season Death is a both a fiendishly clever whodunit and a marvellous entertainment.
Murder in the Telephone Exchange
by June WrightFirst published in 1948, when it was the best-selling mystery of the year in the author's native Australia, Murder in the Telephone Exchange stars feisty young operator Maggie Byrnes. When one of her more unpopular colleagues is murdered - her head bashed in with a "buttinski," a piece of equipment used to listen in on phone calls - Maggie resolves to turn sleuth. Some of her coworkers are acting strangely, and Maggie is convinced she has a better chance of figuring out who is responsible for the killing than the rather stolid police team assigned to the case, who seem to think she herself might have had something to do with it. But then one of her friends is murdered too, and it looks like Maggie might be next. Narrated with verve and wit, this is a whodunit in the tradition of Dorothy L. Sayers and Daphne du Maurier, by turns entertaining and suspenseful, and building to a gripping climax.
So Bad a Death
by June Wright Lucy SussexThe return of Maggie Byrnes, heroine of Murder in the Telephone Exchange. Maggie is married now, with a young son, and living in an outer Melbourne suburb. But violent death dogs her footsteps even in apparently tranquil Middleburn. It's perhaps not that much of a surprise when widely disliked local bigwig James Holland (who also happens to be Maggie's landlord) is shot, but Maggie suspects that someone is also trying to poison the infant who is his heir, and turns sleuth once more to uncover the culprits. First published in 1949, So Bad a Death is is June Wright's second novel, which she originally planned to call Who Would Murder a Baby? Her publishers demurred, but under any title it's a worthy sequel to Murder in the Telephone Exchange. Novelist and crime fiction historian Lucy Sussex contributes an introduction to this reissue, which also includes a fascinating interview she conducted with June Wright in 1996.
A Chill Rain in January
by L. R. WrightThough Karl Alberg is effectively the police chief in the town of Sechelt, 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.
Fall from Grace
by L. R. WrightIt's midsummer and murderously hot in British Columbia. For the vacationing Karl Alberg, that becomes more than a metaphor when he discovers a body on the beach, fresh from a fatal plunge into the waves. Back home in the town of Sechelt, where Alberg is the chief of police, the heat is bringing out the crazies, most recently a tribe of violent rednecks loony enough to make Alberg yearn a little for his days as a big-city cop.
The Suspect
by L. R. WrightA beautifully crafted story about murder, and evil that is perhaps worse than murder. You will not find a more sympathetic murderer in all of literature. The author expertly leads to a conclusion that is both satisfying and disturbing.
El día del fin del mundo
by Lawrence WrightUn thriller médico escrito antes de la pandemia sobre la llegada de un virus letal que arrasa con la población mundial, de la mano del ganador del Premio Pulitzer, Lawrence Wright. Cuando el epidemiólogo Henry Parsons viaja hasta un campo de refugiados de Indonesia, donde han muerto varios cooperantes en circunstancias muy extrañas para investigar el posible brote de una enfermedad desconocida, no sabe que va a encontrarse con un virus letal capaz de aniquilar la vida en el planeta. Mientras la enfermedad avanza irremisiblemente, Parsons viajará de Indonesia a La Meca tras las huellas de uno de los portadores del virus y de ahí a Arabia Saudí en una desesperada carrera para frenar la pandemia en la que gobiernos, farmacéuticas y asociaciones de todo tipo tratan de arañar el poder en medio del caos y con la esperanza de regresar a su hogar junto a Jill, su esposa, y a sus dos hijos. Este profético thriller confirma que la ficción, muchas veces, se acerca de manera escalofriante a la realidad del mundo en el que vivimos.
The End of October: A novel
by Lawrence Wright<P><P>In this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees. <P><P>At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. <P><P>Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry's wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller. <P><P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
God's Favorite: A Novel
by Lawrence WrightIn this fascinating work of historical fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright captures all the gripping drama and black humor of Panama during the final, nerve-racking days of its legendary dictator, Manuel Antonio Noriega.It is Christmas 1989, and Tony Noriega's demons are finally beginning to catch up with him. A former friend of President Bush, Fidel Castro, and Oliver North, this universally reviled strongman is on the run from the U.S. Congress, the Justice Department, the Colombian mob, and a host of political rivals. In his desperation, he seeks salvation from any and all quarters -- God, Satan, a voodoo priest, even the spirits of his murdered enemies. But with a million-dollar price on his head and 20,000 American soldiers on his trail, Noriega is fast running out of options. Drawn from a historical record more dramatic than even the most artful spy novel, God's Favorite is a riveting and darkly comic fictional account of the events that occurred in Panama from 1985 to the dictator's capture in 1989. With an award-winning journalist's eye for detail, Lawrence Wright leads the reader toward a dramatic face-off in the Vatican embassy, where Noriega confronts his psychological match in the papal nuncio.
Remembering Satan: Recovered Memory and the Shattering of a Family
by Lawrence WrightIn 1988 Ericka and Julie Ingram began making a series of accusations of sexual abuse against their father, Paul Ingram, who was a respected deputy sheriff in Olympia, Washington. At first the accusations were confined to molestations in their childhood, but they grew to include torture and rape as recently as the month before. At a time when reported incidents of "recovered memories" had become widespread, these accusations were not unusual. What captured national attention in this case is that, under questioning, Ingram appeared to remember participating in bizarre satanic rites involving his whole family and other members of the sheriff's department.Remembering Satan is a lucid, measured, yet absolutely riveting inquest into a case that destroyed a family, engulfed a small town, and captivated an America obsessed by rumors of a satanic underground. As it follows the increasingly bizarre accusations and confessions, the claims and counterclaims of police, FBI investigators, and mental health professionals. Remembering Satan gives us what is at once a psychological detective story and a domestic tragedy about what happens when modern science is subsumed by our most archaic fears.
Robby the R-Word
by Leif WrightRobby Turner has been completely paralyzed for forty years. He's a vegetable in a wheelchair - at least, that's what everyone thinks. Then he receives a special computer that allows him to communicate with the world. Robby's father has been assaulted, with similar beatings and now murders happening across town. The clumsy culprit is leaving clues, and Detective Bain is determined to uncover this mysterious assailant. Meanwhile, Robby has been watching and hearing everything, and he's been doing his own detective work. But can Bain trust Robby? After all, the clumsy clues are starting to point toward him.
Dancing with the Tiger
by Lili WrightWhen 30-year-old Anna Ramsey learns that a meth-addicted looter has dug up what might be the funerary mask of Montezuma, she books the next flight to Oaxaca. Determined to redeem her father, a discredited art collector, and to one-up her unfaithful fiancé, a museum curator, Anna hurls herself headlong into Mexico's underground art world. But others are chasing the treasure as well: the shape-shifting drug lord no one can really describe; the enigmatic American expat, who keeps his art collection locked in a chapel; the former museum director who traffics stolen works, and his housekeeper--deeply religious, a gay woman in a culture of machismo, dependent on a patron she loathes; the painter Salvador on his motorcycle, complex, sensual--but with secrets of his own. Anna soon realizes that everyone is masked--some literally, others metaphorically. Indeed, Dancing with the Tiger is a splendid reminder that throughout human history, cultures have revered masks: whether in the theater or in war, for religious purposes, or to conceal identity, masks are as universal as our desire to transform ourselves, to change. Anna, without an ounce of self-pity despite traumatic losses, stands out as a heroine for our times as, traveling alone, she finds the courage to show her true face.From the Hardcover edition.
Acts of Murder: Karl Alberg # 9 (Karl Alberg #9)
by L.R. WrightA serial killer stalks the Sunshine Coast in the final novel of this Edgar Award–winning series by the &“master of the psychological thriller&” (Booklist, on Mother&’s Love). The ninth and final book in the Karl Alberg series makes a wonderfully elegant end to the saga of the tiny town on Canada&’s &“Sunshine Coast,&” the policeman who tries to catch the town&’s baddies, and the sensual, smart-mouthed librarian he loves. Alberg and Cassandra are at long last getting married, and Alberg has a new sergeant, the beautiful and enigmatic Edwina Henderson. But don&’t be fooled by all the sunshine. Sechelt, British Colombia, once again has more than its share of murders. And the serial killer who&’s busy knocking off residents—someone known as &“the avenging Angel&”—may be the darkest character Alber has ever faced.
A Chill Rain in January (Karl Alberg #3)
by L.R. WrightThe Canadian cop is up against a small-town femme fatale in a thriller &“rich in humorous and poignant aspects as well as fierce suspense&” (Publishers Weekly). 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 in search of a good martini. But a storm is brewing for Alberg, just a few miles down the peninsula. Zoe Strachan, Sechelt&’s newest resident, is the sort of enigmatic seductress who could get away with murder. And when her ne&’er-do-well brother takes a fatal tumble down her basement steps, it&’s time for Zoe to wrap the local law enforcement around her little finger. And while Alberg is certainly nobody&’s fool, this case has him tied up in knots.
Fall from Grace (Karl Alberg #4)
by L.R. WrightSummer along Canada’s Sunshine Coast is murderously hot in this moody mystery thriller by the Edgar Award–winning author of The Suspect.RCMP Sergeant Karl Alberg is attempting to escape the heat with his girlfriend Cassandra when they discover a body on the beach, fresh from a fatal plunge into the icy, all-too-appealing waves. As Alberg knows from his days as a big-city cop, heat can make people do strange things—such as the recent act of vandalism at a local petting zoo. But was there something more to this untimely death?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 these provocative strands through a Pacific Northwest heatwave, acclaimed author L.R. Wright once again delivers an atmospheric mystery with “a most appealing protagonist—akin to P. D. James's Dalgleish and Ruth Rendell's Wexford, but with a quintessentially Canadian voice” (Publishers Weekly).
Mother Love (Karl Alberg #7)
by L.R. WrightA housewife’s murder draws a Canadian detective into a twisted family history in this novel by the award-winning “master of the psychological thriller” (Booklist).Maria Buscombe was a housewife living in Sechelt, British Colombia, until seven years ago when she suddenly abandoned her family. Now it seems she has returned—just in time to be murdered. What made her leave? What made her return? And who was sending her money and photographs of her daughter all that time?These are the questions nagging at Sergeant Karl Alberg as he searches for Maria’s killer. Meanwhile, Alberg’s longtime companion Cassandra Mitchell is doing some nagging of her own. Alberg had promised, after all, to hang up his policeman’s hat.
Prized Possessions (Karl Alberg #5)
by L.R. WrightThe Edgard Award–winning author of The Suspect returns with another &“stunning mystery&” set along Canada&’s Sunshine Coast—&“the ending is a real killer&” (The New York Times). In this masterpiece of psychological suspense, the real villain is self-delusion; it inflicts more damage than even the craziest serial-killer. In the case of Emma O&’Brea, the delusions concern her marriage: When her husband Charlie disappears it quickly becomes apparent that Emma was the only person in Canada who didn&’t recognize how desperate he had been to leave. Then there&’s Eddie Addison, an overgrown delivery boy, far from the sharpest knife in the drawer, and dangerous obsessed with a pretty young student. Eddie and Emma would seem to have little in common, but when Inspector Karl Alberg is called in to solve the riddle of Charlie&’s vanishing act, the two sets of disturbing delusions begin to converge, with a climax that even the canniest reader is unlikely to see coming.
Sleep While I Sing (Karl Alberg #2)
by L.R. WrightA murder on Canada&’s Sunshine Coast hits close to home for a former city cop in a mystery of &“excellent writing, inventive plots and realistic characters&” (Publishers Weekly). Karl Alberg was a big-city cop, for Pete&’s sake. He solved crimes involving gangsters, druglords, real hardened criminals. He couldn&’t possibly be stumped by a murder in the sweet coastal town of Sechelt, British Colombia. Yet here he is, facing one of the most gruesome and baffling murders of his career. The woman was found propped against a tree, her face scrubbed clean, and her neck slit from one side to the other. And that is all anyone can tell Alberg. Her name? No one knows. So Alberg hires a local artist to draw her picture; maybe someone will recognize her . . . without, you know, the sliced-up neck. It&’s a brilliant idea. The answers pour in. And they all point to one suspect, which should make Alberg very happy. Except that the individual requiring Alberg&’s professional focus is the last person he wants to think about.
Strangers Among Us: Karl Alberg # 8 (Karl Alberg #8)
by L.R. WrightA teenager arrested for his parents&’ murder has a Canadian cop investigating the dark heart of his sunny seaside village in this acclaimed mystery series. Vancouver's &“Sunshine Coast&” is famous for its beautiful vistas, but closer inspection reveals a strong dose of dysfunction among its quaint villages. Eliot Gardener is maddeningly sullen as only an angry fourteen-year-old can be. He's also, apparently, a double-murderer, having whacked both of his parents with a machete. At least it&’s an open and shut case for Canadian Mountie Karl Alberg. Or is it? Eliot may be guilty, but what drove him to commit such a grisly crime? As Alberg tries to get the troubled boy to talk, he finds himself dealing with dysfunction in his own life. His former neighbor bears him some serious ill will. And he keeps popping up wherever Alberg happens to be. Suddenly Alberg is watching a number of simmering pots . . .and the tension is only heating up.