Book 12 in our Canadian Historical Mysteries Collection - Alberta
The 1918 influenza
pandemic strikes Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Great War rages overseas. While her husband
fights in Europe, Katharine works in a doctor’s office to support her children
and her brother, a wounded veteran. One night their neighbour suddenly takes
sick and dies. The attending doctor concludes the man died from influenza, but
Katharine suspects someone laced his whisky with a drug that mimics the deadly
flu’s symptoms.
Katharine
convinces the police to investigate. Worried about her brother’s involvement
with a suspect, she delves into his secrets and comes to fear he’s connected to
the murder. She grows disturbingly attracted to the investigating detective who
returns her affections. He’s convinced her brother or someone else close to her
is a killer and risks his career to pursue the crime. Katharine must discover
the truth so she can move forward in a world that has changed forever.
Editorial Review, Nancy M. Bell
The Scots call whisky Usige beatha, the
water of life. But what if whisky becomes Usige bas, the water of death?
It's the last winter of WW1 in Calgary, although the citizens don't know that
yet, and prohibition is imposed on the population. The trade of
illegal liquor is alive and well, the tendrils of that activity reaching
into even the higher echelons of society. Two seemingly innocent, but connected
deaths send Detective Tanner on a quest that leads him to rely on information
provided by Katharine, an attractive neighbour of the deceased men whose
brother may or may not be the murderer. Calder has weaved a web of deceit
and intrigue while salting the path with an array of red herrings, but in the
end leads the reader to a satisfying conclusion.
It is 1995, and intelligence operative Lora Chandler, a.k.a. Agent Vogel, is tasked with investigating the claim that Professor Simon Blackmarr has cracked the invisibility problem. A mission that leads her back to the half-forgotten beach town of Lancaster, Florida. Home to estranged love interest, and newspaper reporter Richard Davis. Her feelings for him have never really died, and matters become even more complicated when Vogel learns that Blackmarr's breakthrough is legitimate. A scientific discovery that —in the wrong hands — could alter the balance of global power. The stakes become even higher when the professor is abducted from the university, forcing Vogel back into the shadowy realm of espionage to find out who and why. It will take all the skill and cunning Lora Chandler possesses to stop a threat that could have devastating consequences for her personal life — and the world at large.
Editorial Review JD Shipton
Could invisibility be induced? Wright makes a plausible case for this formulation, and the subsequent whirlwind of intrigue and tumult which must inevitably follow its discovery. Clandestine organizations, agents in espionage, a spiritual guru, and a hapless newspaperman find themselves swept up in power’s gyre as they each maneuver for control in the shadows- or less.
It is 1959 and the Canadian Navy is at
the forefront in the area of anti-submarine warfare systems research and
development. The RCMP has received information from the FBI in the States,
warning of a possible Soviet plan to send agents to the port city to steal
whatever they can get.
The security in Halifax is run almost
entirely by the navy. The RCMP decides to send their own man down to assess the
effectiveness of their system and to try and root out the Soviet agents along
with exposing any contacts within the service that may be cooperating or
otherwise, assisting them. That man is Inspector Jesse Thompson of their
intelligence section.
Thompson, who is just back from an
assignment in the Northwest Territories and the DEW Line network is not overly
happy about the assignment. He was expecting a well deserved week’s vacation
with the love of his life, not another mission, particularly down in Atlantic
Canada.
When he arrives he quickly learns that
security, as such, seems sketchy at best and is run by a British naval officer,
Jules Swanson, but on closer examination he sees that it is much more
comprehensive. Over the course of a week, he uncovers several people working
for the navy who are also working for the Soviets and soon gets a line on the
agents sent here. Everything is resolving itself nicely until the day Pavlo
Palyvoda arrives.
Editorial Review, Nancy M. Bell
as embarked on a new series now that John Robichaud, of the Detective John Robichaud Mysteries, has retired. Matt Murphy is now the detective who is embroiled in espionage and the underbelly of post war Halifax. Fans of the Robichaud series will be happy to see old friend Pete Duncan is still on the job and willing to jump into a situation that requires his co-operation with the Navy and Naval Intelligence. Doucette does his usual bang-up job of weaving a tale of danger, deception and national security into a engaging and entertaining story.
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Interesting mystery. When I was a nurse, I worked on the US Steel ward, the evening shift. One of my duties was to pass out the five PM doses of whiskey
ReplyDeletePrescription liquor was an interesting loophole to the Prohibition laws. And liquor was a more effective than most medicines of the time aside from opiates.
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